A recent study by Nielsen shows that time spent visiting social networking sites (predominantly facebook of course!) has outpaced the time spent emailing. View the article
here.
It states that "Nielsen's
global study of social networking, released this week, found that 67 percent of online users spend time on social networks, compared to 65 percent who use e-mail to communicate."
So although the pace is not by much it shows just how much time people are spending on social networking apps, the article goes on to discuss the large number of older generations (ie: 35+) that are using these sites. These older people are most likely those that are (hopefully still) employed and in a large part, professional individuals who, in my opinion, are currently using these sites not only to network but to find new tools for their business, their role, etc... Does your company have any type of presence here? If so do you know what it is and is it a positive one? A business blogging software that is easy to use and humanizes your companiese marketing would be a great strategy since that meshes so well with exactly what people using social networking sites want, People, Humans, What Do You Think About It!? Seriously, think about it...
My colleagues Brian Millis and BJ McKay recently returned from a great conference in Chicago,
Blogwell. This conference hosted quite a few well known enterprise level companies and disucssed all things blog and social media related. Brian and BJ observed that these companies are realizing they need a strategic social media presence. Their customers are using facebook, twitter,
etc... to communicate about them both positively and negatively. These companies need a professional blogging tool, a tool like Compendiums easy blog software perhaps, to particpate in these conversations and monitor what is being said online about their products and services. I found an interesting article from online marketing source
Practical Ecommerce, that shared some interesting points about this very topic title Social Media:
Listening Is The New Marketing.
I have been throwing this term "inbound marketing" around in my conversations with clients interested in blogging for SEO and lead generation. I have stopped myself a few times to make sure the person on the other end of the phone understands what that means and how powerful it is. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.
Inbound marketing is as simple as providing information about what that person (in the blogosphere "searcher") was looking for at exactly the moment they are looking for it. Search is really the primary and best way to accomplish this. Compare this strategy to traditional mediums of billboards, newspapers, radio, etc... as a marketer it is a challenge to truly know if those people who see or hear you ad are even remotely interested in or qualified to buy your product. With search and an inbound strategy your customers are online, searching for an answer to their problem and ta-da! there it is in the form of a zillion results on the topic they specifically asked for. Compendium's keyword focused blogging tool allows companies to not only be a part of those zillion search results but to capture the prime search real estate and actually "win" . Provide a web page all about their company and dedicated to exactly what the potential customer was looking for, then provide clear next steps for the person to engage with you company. Powerful stuff! Powerful, measurable, money making, stuff!
Fantastic article I found on the benefits of company blogging today. The study by Hubspot can be seen
here.
"Of the 167 executives and business owners surveyed by Internet marketing firm HubSpot, three-quarters of those that have tried blogging said their company blogs were "useful," "important," or "critical" to their business. Nearly half the companies have a blog, and three-quarters publish content at least weekly."
Business blogging done through Compendium allows companies to leverage the humanized marketing power of blogging even more through our proprietary keyword blog populating tool. To learn more visit us at www.compendiumblogware.com
The bad weather has rolled into Indy and what better way to wrap up my day than with a quick blog post. My topic today is not directly related to blogging
for SEO or corporate blogging but I will quickly endorse one of my favorite internet marketers,
Seth Godin. His recent post actually focused on email and how to write an effective one. I think it is a duty as a professional, working for an internet marketing company to share pieces of information like this for other professionals who read Compendium blogs. See the post here, pick up what you may and if you are anywhere in the midwest today, safe travels!
Read Seth's Effective Email Post
Here
I really wanted to blog about the inaguration. Even though I was just sitting in a conference room here at Compendium there was an incredible energy in
the air yesterday, it made me feel proud to be a part of this country and I can't wait to see what Obama and his administration do for America. Now, how exactly does that relate to blogging and social media? It has been amazing to watch his campaign and popularity grow and much of has been done via social media and marketing. Using facebook, email, and text messaging Obama reached out to millions of young voters and found them where they were already at, then nurtured that relationship and turned that into votes which obviously worked out very well for him. :) I am someone still fairly new to sicla media and all its capabilities it is really is a pretty straitghtforward approach, reach people where they are and in ways they want to be talked to. By doing that you have a much more likely chance of them giving you the reaction you want. For a business this can easily be
done via search, give that searcher a blog page discussing exactly the topic they want then ask them to react, take the next step, buy from you. Pretty powerful but still pretty basic, I think Obama's efforts along these lines indicate how powerful social media is today, we will see where it takes us moving forward.
This is an interesting article via Brafton, a newsfeed web service site. I actually found this article on Compendium's awesome content ideas tool. This tool pulls
in live new articles all about business blogging, SEO, and all things techie, it is an awesome way to generate ideas as I attempt blog for SEO! Anyway back to this article... while it doesn't contain a lot of earth shattering substance it does reference the Google Operating System blog and ask the question of how search will change in the coming years. Google is reportedly testing out tools to make search more personalize to a user. As someone involved in a company that is keenly focused on SEO and blogging for SEO I know we will be keeping an eye on search on Google's plans for the future. See the article here and check out the Google OS blog here. Happy Inaguration Day!
I am heading to Bloomington this weekend to enjoy some Hoosier basketball, Little Zagreb's cuisine, and a stay a
t one of my favorite places, The Grant Street Inn. Now I know the Hoosiers are not having a great season (maybe they could use an organizational blog software like Compendium to generate some momentum!:)) but as a lifelong fan and alumni I'm still looking forward to some time in Bloomington. It is amazing how working here makes me think about all the businesses and organizations large and small that I interact with and how they could use blogging... ever the salesperson I know :) 
Really it is amazing the reach that Compendium's tool has, just check out my most recent posts discussing the different types of businesses I work with everyday. Off to Bloomington in a few hours, happy weekend, for those of us in the midwest and north east, stay warm!
Businesses can be found on search in two ways:
- Organic or "natural" results
- Sponsored or "paid" results
The heat map below from a notable Marketing Sherpa study evaluates where clicks happen on any given Google results page. It is easy to see how valuable it is for a business to be listed in the organic results and particularly in the top few listings of the organic search results. If you are not one of the first listings you may as well be on page 25 because no one can find you. Businesses that identify the opportunity to blog for SEO dramatically increase traffic to their blog pages and to their web sites. Compendium's easy blog software enables businesses who want to blog for SEO and lead generation to do so in an easy to use way with an actual measurable ROI. In tough times marketers must find ways to do everything more effectively with a keen focus on ROI to their business. For more information on this check out Compendium Blogware.
Earlier today I blogged about my conversations with a charming B&B in East Hampton, New York and how they are hoping to use Compendium as a marketing tool. It really floors me that I was able to talk to a large marketing consulting firm, MCorp, that works with enterprise level businesses and have a great conversation around Compendium and how it can work for their business needs.
These two businesses target markets are very different, couples looking for romantic getaways vs. C-level marketing and customer service execs. Wow, talk about two different target markets! :) Their budgets are very different and the messaging they want to put online is very different. The obvious thing that still tends to amaze me is that both of these businesses potential customers are using search to find what they need. Whether it is a Valentine weekend getaway or the best customer experience management tools and the consultants to work with, everyone is using online search as a key part of their research. The ability to put your business in front of them with engaging, humanized information about exactly what they have requested is the beauty of blogging and of search marketing.
I have spent some time in conversations over the past few days with Sylvia Muller who, along with her husband Gary, owns the Mill House Inn. The Mill House Inn is a fantastic, romantic, beautiful bed and breakfast in East Hampton, New York. They have a great web site and are looking at using Compendium's easy blogging software as an additional tool to enhance their organic search power and increase business at the inn.
As you can imagine Sylvia is quite a busy lady running a bed and breakfast and it seems to be a great opportunity for her to maximize her time spent blogging by using Compendium's keyword SEO blogging system. I share this not only because I am hopeful about working with Sylvia and Gary but also because I truly am falling in love with this beautiful place, if you like bed and breakfasts and are looking for a romantic getaway on the east coast I highly reccomend you check it out. I hope to make a visit there in the future too. 
I have recently been reading some
Marketing Profs and
Marketo B2B articles dating back as far as 2006. It is particularly interesting how well blogging integrates with the "tried and true" marketing strategies they recommend.
- Provide research tools for buyers early in the sales cycle: We know that a key component of research is the web 2.0 world is search. A topically focused blog page dedicated to the search term is an excellent way for businesses to provide focused, relevant information to someone early in the sales cycle and enhance their experience by offering whitepapers, webinars, etc... while gaining permission to bring them into your database
- Use landing pages: It makes total sense to bring a searcher to the most relevant page on your site to buy, learn, etc... based on their search term. Blogging with Compendium enables you to do just that by having relevant calls to action to "buy now", "learn more", etc... while also presenting the real live voices from within that company to help that search be engaged and feel great about working with your firm
- Use automated systems and processes: If there is one thing we don't need on our plates its another system to keep track of and monitor. Our business blogging software enables keyword rich, topically focused landing pages to be automatically udpated each time a blog post is written. Weekly and monthly reporting delivered to your inbox also takes out the hassle of figuring out how its all working for your business.
As you evaluate tried and true strategies for your e-marketing plans in the new year take a closer look at blogging for your business. It may just be the best new years resolution your organization has ever made.
Blog Tactics By Marketing ProfsIn hopes of sharing successful business blogging tips in my blog, and not being an expert by any means on business blogging... I find it particularly helpful to reference various resources I come across.
My Marketing Profs email today titled "
The Big Bad Blog Clock" touted the importance of having a strategy for blogging, developing a dedicated team of bloggers, and having a system so that your posts to hit your blog at the most effective time. Compendium's philosophy and mine do mimic these overall strategies, and I would encourage you to be even a bit more "loose" with your company blogging efforts by freeing more than just a few people within the company to blog. Yes you will probably have a core team that enjoys it and is good at it but why not open it up and encourage all of your employees from the top on down to share information? This strategy, in my opinion, will ensure you have a variety of information and stories around all the reasons your company is great, not just the opinion of a few and that you will have multiple posts per week. With an admin layer in place, such as the tool on our easy blog software, you can ensure all info, no matter who is writing, is solid and correct for your business before it is live on the web. This tool along with bringing in multiple bloggers will help your business blog acheive the overall goal of engaging searchers and customers on a person to person level.
Depressed? Try SEO!SEOmoz recently featured a great
post on their blog regarding an increased interest in SEO by venture capital firms and why SEO spending and initiatives are top of mind for marketers even as depression, gloom, and doom are supposedly all around us.
What better way to invest in SEO and in your people and culture than to start a
business blog? Compendium's multi user blog software can not only get your message out there to searchers and consumers but will engage your employees and drive your bottom line.
Get Fresh, Go Organic! As a wannabe "green girl" and "foodie" I have begun to search out fresh local ingredients that are not only good for me but also good for the planet. I even joined
at
CSA (community supported agriculture) that enables me to get a delivery of local, organic produce every week for about 6 months a year. What does this have to do with blogging you ask? Well not really that much but it is something that I believe in much like I am a believer in the power of organic search so there is the puny connection for you.
Go Organic.... Online!
Marketing Profs recently did an article on touting the importance of
organic search. Their instructions to pay attention to page titles, URL's, calls to action, and more are echoed in the message here at Compendium. We know searchers pretty much ignore the paid listings anyway so the power of winning in an organic environment is much more valuable - and most likely more affordable - than trying to outbid your competitors for paid terms.... Come to think of it maybe organic search is good for the planet... less money spent and frustration by internet marketers out there is bound to make for a more harmonious environment for all of us. :)
Seth Godin, well known marketing guru with a well followed blog, posted about permission marketing as it relates to the elections and campaigning.
He praised Obama's strategies of building lists and then delivering relevant, engaging messages consistently to the people on that list. Essentially the Obama ran a fantastic marketing campaign - obvious by his historic victory. There is much to be learned from Obama's campaign strategy.
You Must Serve The Searcher!As we become a nation of sattelite radio listeners, DVR watchers, and of course internet users the old methods of broadcasting your message out there on TV, radio, billboards, anywhere and hoping someone is listening is a dying practice. Marketers must service the searcher, they must be there first with the info a consumer is looking for, when they are looking for it and they had better make it a brief compelling message with an opportunity to take the next steps now!
In the economic environment we are in currently it is also vital to be able to track everything and see if and how that translates into revenue for your company. That can be very difficult to do with traditional mediums. Business blogging allows the searcher to find keyword blog page they are looking for and then track exactly what that searcher does, ie: do they engage in next steps and actually buy, sign up, download this, etc... even the smallest business can leverage the power of blogging for seo and easily track the traffic they get to their blogs and how that converts into real dollars in the door. For more info on this feel free to "engage" in one of our nifty next steps here on my blog.
Compendium is a blogging software for businesses. Businesses are certainly focused on profit. By using Compendium they can achieve success on the search engines, get found on Google first, and dramatically increase the likelihood of a searcher clicking on their link. But then what? Every blog posted by our clients feature a clear call to action to do this, click here, talk to us, take the next step with us! But why should a searcher do that? Assuming they have landed on your Compendium blog that is very relevant to the "red vintage convertible Ford Mustang" they are searching for the content they find on that blog is vitally important. Are they learning something new about this car? Are they learning where they can find one and why that dealer is the best person to buy from? Are they engaged by a post on how a "red vintage convertible Ford Mustang" will make them feel young and free again, perhaps how their friends and family thought they were crazy to buy one but now they all love it? We all know marketing is about being ready with a relevant message when your customers are ready to receive it, not throwing your message out there and hoping it sticks... it is also becoming much more focused on human to human engagement and for a customer (searcher) to feel good about taking the next steps with your business
Today on the Profit From Business Blogging webinar Chris Baggott and Debbie Weil spent some time talking about who should and could blog for your company. Should all employees participate in your company blog platform? Should C-level people blog? Are marketers the onlyl ones doing this? Well, I think it depends. It depends on your company blogging strategy, your goals (to blog for search engine optimization, show voice in various levels of the company, build your brand, etc...). However based on both contributors comments today really any strategy can work. Whether you have two or twenty bloggers, you can find employees to post, some of whom may already be blogging and are excited to share why they love their workplace. It was also discussed that employee bloggers can be up to five time more likeable and engaging than a C-level (perhaps a ghostwriter) is. Not onlyl does freeing your employees to blog increase your chances of engaging your searchers it will also make your company look good in the eyes of the public and help your employees warm and fuzzy about their jobs. Who doesn't want that warm fuzzy feeling!? Compendium has freed me to blog and I the warm fuzziness is certainly coming my way.
What is the key to a successful business blog? Considering I am new to Compendium and the SEO and internet world I am sharing my beginner knowlege here. As we know, the power of the internet for marketers is incredible. Blogging is an incredible solution for businesses looking to win in SEO and get found in organic search resulting in increased lead gnereation. To take it to the next level, business blogging with compendium will produce better blogs and quicker results for your business.
Marketers today are no longer reaching out and often times interupting potential customers, Google and others allow customers to go online and tell us what they are looking for. A marketers job is now to make sure they are the first answer to the customers question, which is the keywords they search. One solution to this is to use pay per click to be the first on the list however research has told us that people click on items in the organic listings near 95% of the time and the paid listings only 5%. Therefore companies need a way to be at the top of that organic list. That is where compendium blogware comes into play. This blog post software will undoubtedly help your company be at the top of organic search listings for key words related to your products and services. So, the first step in successful business blogging? Learn more about Compendium Blogware's SEO blogging solutions for your business and start your business on the path to success.
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