Archive for the 'Social Media' Category

Is there an optimal frequency of blog posting? Is it once per day? Every Tuesday and Thursday? Once/week? Once/month? Something else?

My frequency of blog posting is usually approximately once every 7 days. I think it’s safe to assume that every SEO Consultant that gets busier with client work, blogs less. This usually happens in waves, and it affects the frequency of his/her blog posting.

Darren Rowse wrote a great post answering these questions. He sums it up by saying it doesn’t matter as long as the posts are consistent & quality:

My main advice on posting frequency is to be consistent and keep the quality of your posts as high as possible. There are successful blogs who post 20 times a day and others that are lucky to post 20 times a year - any level of post CAN work.

In Darren’s post, something that wasn’t addressed is whether or not the frequency of posting affects the amount of RSS subscribers you have?

I’ve thought about installing the “What Would Seth Godin Do” plugin that says, “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!”

Is that plugin too obnoxious? Does it interfere with the user experience? In my case, I’ve put the RSS Subscribe button on the right sidebar. It’s there. Yep, I’d love to have more RSS subscribers. But, I don’t want to be annoying about asking. I can’t help but wonder if the sidebar button is enough of a request to ask people to subscribe? Probably not. But ya know, people will subscribe if that’s the way they like to consume content.

Bloggers that have accomplished acquiring a lot of RSS subscribers describe in 10 or 11 ways, how to find new RSS subscribers.

As I get busier and blog less, I console myself by thinking it’s okay not to blog so frequently, because the priorities ARE client work. Not blogging.

To attempt to answer the question of whether or not the frequency of blog posting affects your RSS subscribers, I gotta believe that it does; As long as you’re writing quality content.

And, you’re pages will get indexed and, you’ll be found thru search engines & if you promote your blog using social media you’ll increase the chances even more of picking up more blog subscribers.

I find blogging is like playing sports. Some days you just can’t be beat. While other days you’re lucky just to be in the game. I’ll try my best to keep writing quality content.

Rest assured that if you don’t see a post from me within a week, that I’m certainly thinking about what to post, and working hard on the priority stuff.

Photo credit: Mexicanwave

Using Twitter can definitely take a lot of time. As I’ve been using Twitter more & more, I’ve tried a lot of different things. Hopefully, you’ll get something from this post that will help you manage your Twitter usage more effectively.

My goal is to make my time on Twitter as efficient as possible. Wouldn’t you like to reduce your amount of time on Twitter, but increase the quality of time?

1) Centralized Dashboard: I like to use TweetDeck.

2) Automate: I use Twitterfeed to automate 2 of my Tweets everyday. This will pull fresh content from any RSS feed I choose. Choose as many as you wish. And, it’ll go out and grab the most recent content on a specified time schedule you pre-select. I also use Socialtoo, which allows you to auto-follow people who follow you, auto-unfollow people who unfollow you, blacklist Twitter users, send automatic DMs to your new followers, and disable auto DMs.

I follow everyone back

3) Interaction: Some people only follow a few, while others have thousands of followers. In my opinion, they are not making the most out of their Twitter profile, and just don’t “get-it”. Twitter is social, right. People like interacting. People want to interact. Example of getting it: Guy Kawasaki. Example of NOT getting it: Oprah.

4) Retweet: Don’t be shy. Retweet some of your followers tweets. You know it’s interesting stuff. And, good karma too.

5) Seek & Follow: 2 things I do for this. I use Twellow, and occasionally will search thru somebody’s followers list.

6) Share Original Thoughts: Not every Tweet needs to have a link. Go ahead, say what’s on your mind. People are interested. Really.

7) Quotes from other people: Once in a while drop in a famous quote, bible verse, etc. Quotes from someone on a holiday or birthday can be very appropriate. Like a quote from General Patton on Veterns Day, or something like that. Another idea is to quotes from someone elses Tweet with a [by @username].

8 ) Answer Questions: Search Twitter Search for phrases that contain the who, what how, why, when, where questions…and your keyword.

When you get really serious about using Twitter , and are willing to pay a monthly subscription, it might be time for EasyTweets.

Photo Credit: shawnzlea

People sometimes do odd things in social media. One of these things is making their Twitter accounts private. If the point of social media is to be social, why hide your account? Here are the reasons I’ve come across that people choose to keep their Twitter accounts private:

Personal Accounts - this is one of the more popular uses of taking an account private. If you are spending all day managing a large brand with thousands of followers, perhaps you just want an accounts you can use between friends. It’s easier and more quiet that way.

Privacy - some people are crazy out in them there Internets, so if you are a public figure or have stalkers, I can totally understand why you wouldn’t want your stalker to know where you are every moment of the day.

Inactive / Inexperienced Accounts - if you aren’t a power user or are just starting out on Twitter, maybe it’s too cumbersome for you to go through all the spammy followers. Keeping private should weed some of that out for you.

Reputation Management - believe it or not, everyone isn’t using Twitter. Some people only grab a profile to protect their reputation, so it makes sense to keep the account private in this case.

So Why Go Public?

Ok, so maybe you are now ready to come out of your shell and be a social media expert like the rest of us
You’ll be easier to follow, and will appear in Twitter search as well as the public timeline.

Jump on in, the kool aid’s fine!

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Guest Post by Brian Wallace. Follow Brian on Twitter!

What if your target audience doesn’t really use search engines in their business? Perhaps financial executives? What if your target keywords are low volume? Furthermore what if you only have a 10 page website that you started only a week ago? Hmm. Seems like a tough situation. How are you going to get new business? How will you get in front of your target audience online?

As much as I love SEO, I wouldn’t recommend it in this scenerio. No need for an SEO Consultant. The website/blog will most likely be too new & weak to make any kind of impact using SEO. My recommendation would be the use of high quality content in combination with Social Media.

Although, the target audience probably gets their information in other ways than the search engines. Like RSS feeds, email newsletters, trade journals, etc.

If you could get noticed by the Wall Street Journal writer on Twitter, who then decides to link to your blog post, that could be your best method of getting in front of your target audience. Because it’s pretty safe to assume that financial executives read the Wall St Journal.

It’s the combination of creating high-quality content, along with nurturing and building a strong profile on the social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Plan of Attack:
Step 1: Start using Twitter and Facebook regularly.
Step 2: Create high-quality content.
Step 3: Tweet your content.
Step 4: Write a Blog post about the subject, and link to your Tweet, and link to other high-profile bloggers in the post so they notice you.

Ideas for Content:
1. Create a white paper,
2. Tutorial video,
3. In-depth blog post,
4. Take a stand on a controversial issue, or
5. Attack someone else’s position on an issue.

Journalists, reporters, editors, bloggers, are all on Twitter. If they see your content and like it…perhaps they’ll link to it from a story they write. Or, maybe you’ll get mentioned in an email newsletter. Thats one way to get in front of your target audience without using Search Engines.

It’s great to have a website or a blog. It’s almost mandatory in the 21st century. But, equally mandatory is spending time on specific social networks and building a solid profile. In the scenerio I described above, perhaps starting a conversation on Twitter, and publishing a blog post that contains a link to other high profile bloggers is the best strategy to get in front of your target audience through RSS feeds, email newsletters, trade journals, etc.

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Follow Me on Twitter!

I’ve been asked by a Twitter skeptic how you can ever have a related group of followers on Twitter. The skeptic seems to think that Twitter is just a collection of people with unrelated interests that just like to Tweet. After the conversation, I thought a short video post with a Twitter tip would be nice.

Twitter is whatever you make it. Personally, I see great value in having a group of people that share the same interests as I do. I like the question and answering, and the retweeting, and the whole social aspect to it. I also like that it’s fast, and is a great way to promote a website, and/or start a conversation, get a message out, get feedback, branding, customer service, etc.

In response to building a group of people Tweeple that share interests, here’s a 1 minute video on how to build your Twitter profile full of followers that share your interests.

Twellow is a great tool for accomplishing this. But, it shouldn’t be the only tactic you use. I also like to find people on Twitter Search using keyword searches for: SEO, PPC, Marketing, Advertising, Google, Yahoo, Social Media, etc.

Then, I click on their profile to read their Bio, and see if they interact with others. Interaction is a biggie for me. The people that have a huge following, but only follow a small amount are very often into sending a one-way message. And, that might be fine for whatever they’re trying to accomplish, but I personally like the interactions of a dialogue…not a monologue.

If you like what you see, then follow that person. They’ll get an email from Twitter alerting them that you just followed them. And, if you’re Tweeting about the same stuff, there’s a good chance they’ll follow you back. There ya go. It’s that simple.

I had just woken up a little while ago, so unfortunately I look like a need a cup of coffee.

Thanks for watching.

It seems as if a lot of Twitter users would like more followers. Getting Twitter followers is really all about interacting, and sharing common interests. There are plenty of Twitter spammers out there. But, my intention is to show you how to legitimately use Twitter. And, you’ll naturally just start attracting followers. It doesn’t take a whole lot of hours either. I’m gonna show you how to use Twitter & build your base of followers by only spending a few minutes everyday on Twitter.

Why Use Twitter:
Connect with people that share similar interests as you. Build your personal brand. Start a conversation. Get feedback, advice, etc. Drive traffic and awareness. Be social. Get breaking news before it’s news (eg: mumbai attacks, plane crash in hudson river ). Twitter can be whatever you want it to be.

Setting up Twitter:
1) Sign-up. Your Twitter URL should ideally be your brand name.
2) Upload an avatar. That could be your logo, a personal photo, or anything else.
3) Write a descriptive bio. Link to your blog, facebook, linkedin, flickr, etc. Pick one.
4) Put your location on your profile.

How to use Twitter:
1) Tweet useful information that is worth sharing. Add to the community. Use keywords whenever possible in your tweets because people are searching all the time for stuff.
2) Where to find your information? Set up Google Alerts, Email and RSS feeds that will automatically send you fresh & relevant content to Tweet. Set up a RSS feed for a Twitter Search.
3) Retweet (RT) other people’s Tweets.
4) Answer questions using @replies ( Eg: @JoshFialkoff )
5) Use hashtags when appropriate. (eg: place #smx at the end of your tweet when SMX Conference is happening, and you’re Tweeting about it). Hashtags are commonly used when trade shows are happening. That way, everyone at the show can easily find who else is Tweeting.
6) Use a URL shortening service like TinyURL or Zi.ma. The thing I like about Zi.ma is that you can track the # of views.
7) Be consistent. Make it a point to use Twitter a few minutes in the morning, and a few minutes each evening. Monica Obrien wrote a great post about allocating a few minutes everyday to 5 specific Twitter tasks.

Promoting your profile:
1) Use Twitter Search to search for keywords to find people talking about your interests. Follow those people. Say hello.
2) If you have a blog, put a Twitter button on it. Write a post about a Tweet. Link to it. Notify the person who tweeted that you wrote a post about it. Link to other bloggers.
3) If you have a Flickr account, put your Twitter URL on your Flickr profile & photo description. Do the same tactic with Facebook, Linkedin, Viddler, etc.

Twitter only takes a few minutes each day, and is yet another great way to build your personal brand.

What makes a Social Media campaign successful? Is it the number of views on Youtube? Is it the amount of Diggs? Well, it could be. It really all depends what your objectives are.

Is your objective to drive traffic?
Is your objective to create awareness?
Is your objective to sell something?

Social Media campaigns are all about human interaction. They’re about conversations. Start the conversation on the Social Media site you’re strongest on. Keep talking. Keep interacting. Then, start the conversation on another social networking site.

Leverage one site (eg:Twitter) to jump start the conversation on another (eg: Youtube). Upload images(Flickr), bookmark sites (Stumbleupon, Delicious), write your Twitter URL in Flickr photo descriptions. But the key here is making sure you’re available online to continue the conversation on all those sites.

Social Media campaigns aren’t very long. They don’t last 30 days. They usually don’t even last 1 week. They happen within 24-48hrs. Most are a flash in the pan. A good example was the MotrinMoms conversation that happened on Twitter recently. Over the course of the weekend Motrin had a serious brand reputation problem.

Similarly, anybody can have a conversation. Start with your own network of friends. Reach out to influential bloggers. And, integrate the conversation by leveraging social media sites.

I love this quote from Chris Brogan, “People are the core…Everything that has come before this doesn’t work a lick until you understand the people you intend to reach, the people you hope will contribute, and the people who will share their time with you on all angles.” Social media is just that…it’s Social. It’s all about human interaction.

For more on the components within a Social Media optimization, watch my 4 minute video interview of Chris Winfield at SES NY 2008.

Photo credit: Perry Aragon