Today’s post is by David Chapman, Director of Marketing at Webrageous. He’s contributed here on the blog before – CLICK HERE to read his prior work. Learn more about him at the end of the post. Here’s David…
It is pretty well understood by now that all online marketers dedicate part of their time and budget to paid search advertising and another part of their time to developing the power of their sites by writing great content, featuring higher on organic Google listings and attracting inbound links.
The problem is that many online marketers still don’t really know how to write effective content. Poor online content generated by marketers on a day to day basis can cripple a business and destroy its reputation, despite other online marketing work that might be done in paid search areas.
To avoid falling into this trap and becoming one of these online marketers who unwittingly cripples his or her own business, read up and learn from the mistakes of others. The following includes the 6 worst online content mistakes made by marketers when creating content to generate links every single day. Read and learn!
Are your social media efforts paying off? If you can’t answer that with an unequivocal “YES!” then keep reading. The problem doesn’t lie with social media – it likely resides within your business itself. Without taking care of the below fundamentals, your social media strategy doesn’t stand a snowflake’s chance in Hell of surviving.
What Business Are You In?
I know the above hardly seems like a Web 2.0 question but if you fail to answer it, your social media work will be nothing more than glorified surfing of the Internet. Business strategy matters. Clearly defining your customers, their needs, and your offerings are the first steps toward building a successful business. Beyond that, you’ll need to ensure your business model is actually profitable. To get started, you’ll need to go through some basic marketing, branding, and product positioning work. Without this foundation, all your social media efforts will be worthless.
To be clear – I’m boiling the science of product development, marketing, and branding down to an extremely simplistic level. There are plenty of wonderful scientific tomes and resources out there to really help you hone your customer segmentation and corresponding product messages. Such study is outside the scope of this post.
Defining Your Customers and Their Needs
Who exactly are your customers? How old are they? How web savvy? Male? Female? Both? White collar? Blue collar? Businesses? Individual consumers? Too many times I’ve seen businesses take this fundamental step for granted. Do so at your own risk. The more clearly you articulate who your customers are and how they behave, the higher the likelihood you’ll be able to target your offerings and your communications in a manner that effectively drives your business. Spend a few minutes right now writing down who your customers are. Commit it to paper. Here are a few examples. Nothing fancy. Just write a straightforward sentence on who those customers are. Try something like this…
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2012-12-10 07:01:112018-06-27 13:39:47Your Social Media Strategy Doesn’t Stand a Chance
Today’s post is by Craig Robinson of Qwaya.com. Here’s Craig…
The odds are great that you have certain preferences when it comes to purchasing products. Let’s say that you’re walking through the grocery store aisle and you really have a hankering for some chips. Now, if you’re a Doritos fan, you’re probably going to choose a bag of Doritos over a bag of competitor’s tortilla chips. And it’s not that they might not taste as good, or that they’re more expensive, etc. It’s because, psychologically, you are more familiar with the Doritos.
Now relate this to Facebook and people following brands. Someone seeing you and your competitor is thinking the same thing you might think about those chips in the above hypothetical. If they feel comfortable with your competitor, they’re going to go with your competitor – unless, of course, you can entice them away.
A more colorful ad; a two-for-one special – you can think of different ways to break the psychology involved in brand following. However, you first have to understand the psychology behind it all.
The Communications Model
The communications model plays a great deal in how users receive ad material and thus react to it. The communications model is broken down into five parts:
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2012-11-14 13:02:352018-06-27 13:24:41How to Benefit from the Psychology Behind Facebook Brand Following
Blogs are awesome but they’re also a ton of work (unless you’re efficient about it). If you blog with purpose, you’ll see some great results. I’ve learned a lot over the few years I’ve been blogging and I’ve had many folks ask how they can get started, get better, and grow.
To that end, I’d like to offer 31 tips to help you get your blog off the ground and drive the results you want. Why 31? See Item 11 for the reason.
Content
1. Blog with a purpose. If you don’t know why you’re doing it, you won’t stick with it. For me, the blog is about getting our message out and getting folks interested in buying our training courses or buying my book (which is also tied to our training courses). Everything I do keeps that end in mind.
2. Stick with content areas you have expertise in. Stay focused on a small set of topics (10 max). Readers want to know that more often than not when they come to your blog, they’ll find topics they’re interested in.
3. Keep it short. And long. Our posts are 600-1200 words. Short enough to digest quickly. Long enough to cover a subject appropriately.
4. Be entertaining. If you’re going to bore me with dry prose, I’ll click away and go check out theoatmeal.com or freakjet.com. I’m there to be entertained. Use your unique “voice” and just be you.
5. Be actionable. Give your readers something they can immediately apply. If they use your info and find it helpful, they’ll be back and they’ll tell others.
6. Standards. NEVER let crappy content show up on your blog. If you use guest bloggers, you have every right to ask them for revisions if their content isn’t up to your standards. Aim high.
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2012-07-09 07:02:442018-06-26 17:04:3531 Tips for Growing Your Blog
I get the irony of blogging about blogging but given I already talk about talking, I’m okay with that. This isn’t a topic I typically hit on but as the thoughtLEADERS Blog continues to grow and thrive and I get people asking me about what works and what doesn’t, I figure it’s worthwhile to dedicate some airtime to the topic of building your blog following and turning it into real value.
No, I’m not Chris Brogan and this isn’t going to be some massive SEO/SEM treatise. This is nothing more than a list of the best tools, techniques, and widgets I’ve learned and used over the years. I use and believe in these tools and I hope you’ll get as much value out of them as I have.
First, allow me to spell out some social media principles and beliefs so you understand how and why I use the tools I do.
Outposts: I believe in outposts (e.g., twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) serving as a first point of contact for someone to run into me and my business. From those outposts, the primary goal is to get folks to come here to the blog or our main website. I always want to build the conversation and relationship on “my turf” so to speak. Those outposts also allow us to interact with folks in their “natural element” so we’re in front of them when they’re looking for content. If you want to see examples of our outposts, check us out on Twitter at @Figliuolo, @thoughtLEADERS, and @1PieceofPaper. On Facebook we’re at thoughtLEADERS and One Piece of Paper.
Make it Fun: Entertain first. Engage second. Sell third. No one is coming to a boring-assed business blog. If you want their attention, entertain your audience. Do things like talk about your topic of interest in terms of wookiees, superheroes, rappers, and heavy metal bands. If they enjoy coming to your site, you’ll have more opportunities to engage them and they’ll eventually (hopefully) either buy your services or refer you to those who will.
Cash: I’m a capitalist. Yes, I LOVE writing but I have to fund my completely irresponsible lifestyle and that takes cash. That means I sell my book, our training courses, and advertising space. I’m not ashamed of it. This is a for-profit enterprise. All that said, ensure the selling doesn’t get in the way of the content.
Guest Bloggers: Make it bigger than you. I could write a little leadership blog with nothing but my own work. Sure, that’s fun but it gets old. I regularly seek out and invite other people to come write posts here. Noob bloggers freak out at the notion of someone else having the stage in their arena out of fear the readers will defect to the guest blogger. I see it differently. When I bring in a guest, I’m creating value for my readers by finding and screening new content and perspectives. I’m also getting new readers because invariably that guest blogger tells their audience to come read their work on our blog where they also get exposed to our work. It also allows me to be lazy – it’s easier to copy/paste a post by someone else than it is to write it myself, eh? By the way, if you want to write a guest post here sometime, just contact me for guest post parameters.
All that said, here are some of my favorite web tools for blogging easily and successfully:
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2012-06-18 07:02:382018-09-04 19:00:358 Great Tools for Building Your Blog
Today’s post is by David Chapman – Director of Marketing at Webrageous. Here’s David:
Musicals never go out of fashion, because the formula is well understood. It is tried and tested and everyone knows what to expect when they sit down to watch a good musical. The audience is given what they want. The marketing strategy is a classic strategy and doesn’t need to change because the audience and their desires are considered first.
Online marketing managers could learn a lot from this kind of simple approach. The old school marketing strategies should be at the top of our modern marketing plans, even though the marketing world has developed incredibly over the past ten years.
Why?
Because even though the marketing world has developed from a technological point of view, buyers are still the same. People are dinosaurs at heart. We don’t change. We approach a sale in the same way as we have always done and we will continue to approach our sales in the same way as the years sail by, because human beings don’t really change.
So… with this in mind… what are the 5 most important marketing strategies that a marketing manager must utilize when working on any campaign to ensure marketing success, even within our technologically advanced marketing world?
This year is almost over so it’s time for the year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published in 2011. It’s time for the 2011 edition of The Figgies (here are the 2010 and 2009 editions).
This is an annual event here at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. Here’s how it goes: this list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work as judged by you the readers. There’s also a kicker bonus post on the list just for good measure (it’s a “wayback” – and speaking of wayback, check out the photo on the trophy… yes… that’s me ’80’s style baby!).
Enjoy. Share. We’ve loved writing them. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. I don’t ask a lot of you folks so I have two small requests as your holiday gift to me (you are getting me something, right?):
1. Invite all your coworkers, friends, and family to come check out the blog and become readers. The only way we get better is by raising everyone’s game. I’m not asking a lot here. If you found this blog helpful at all this year, here’s your chance to return the favor for all our hard work. Just email folks and tell ’em to come take a look.
2. Pick up a copy of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership. Yes – I know I talk a lot about the book but it’s not for the money (I would have made more money if I worked in a sweat shop in Asia making sneakers). I talk a lot about it because I’m evangelical about the topic. Buy it. Read it. In the words of Roland Smith (CEO of Wendy’s) “It could change your life.”
Thanks for your incredible support in ’11 and best wishes for ’12! We hope to be a part of your future success!
Enough preamble. Here’s the best stuff we’ve written all year:
Today’s guest blogger is David Chapman from Webrageous. You can learn more about him and his work at the end of the post.
When the world of social media began to develop only a few years ago, networking online was all about connecting with friends, sharing personal likes and dislikes, finding out about new things to do in our personal lives.
The mocking snorts and disbelieving grunts began we people started to use social networking at work. And fair enough really. Change is always difficult. The world always needs time to readjust. How can being connected to Facebook truly be considered work?
Well, to be totally honest, social networking is work. The time has come in the 2010s to finally put a stop to the fact that some people still look down on social networkers in many ways. It is disappointing that a good number of leaders still fail to realize that investing good money in the recruitment of a professional social networker is worth every cent in this golden age of technology.
Every single business needs an effective social networker and every leader should be prepared to pay a decent salary to employ the best of the best. It takes more than a few posts or tweets here and there to be an effective social networker and the employees slaving away at all hours of the day and night in this newly developing industry deserve economic recognition for their efforts.
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2011-11-23 07:02:572018-06-26 13:53:56You Need to Hire a Social Media Expert. Now.
Many times in our lives we’re faced with situations where we have trouble making a decision. We noodle it over in our heads but never seem to achieve a conclusion. Or sometimes we quickly reach an answer but have a nagging doubt as to whether it’s correct or not.
There’s an easy way to resolve these situations: ask Facebook!
No, I’m not saying Mark Zuckerberg knows all (although if you check out the data he collects on you, he kinda does… scary, eh?). What I’m saying is Facebook can be a great platform for market research, gathering opinions on decisions you need to make, and getting new ideas.
But it’s not without its dangers. You can’t simply go into Facebook and blindly accept the opinions of the masses. You have to take any and all input as just that – additional input into the decision YOU ultimately have to make and live with.
If you want to use Facebook successfully to help you make better decisions, there are four things to keep in mind:
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2011-07-25 07:02:442018-06-26 13:03:094 Tips for Letting Facebook Tell You What to Do
We’ve all had that experience where we work really hard on something and instead of getting recognized for our contribution, we have to sit there and choke back bile when someone else takes credit for the work. It’s infuriating to think about how hard you worked and how much effort you put into a project only to see some other glory-hound or charlatan pass all that effort off as their own.
Heck, I got a taste of that this week. I saw a bunch of traffic coming to my blog from Dr. Shailesh Thaker’s blog (UPDATE: security software now indicates his blog is a virus attack site – DO NOT GO THERE). At first I was psyched. Here was a self-proclaimed “Management Thinker, HR Guru, and Corporate Coach” telling his fans my content was good.
Then I saw it. It was my blog post on shutting your cake hole. The ONLY thing that was different was the author. Apparently that article was now written by Dr. Thaker himself. Hmmm. I wonder if Thaker rhymes with faker.
That’s right folks. Blatant plagiarism. Here’s my original post and here’s his post (UPDATE: he finally removed all posts however his site is now showing up as an “attack site” in my antivirus so I’ve disabled links to him). Unfortunately he wasn’t bright enough to disable the hyperlink back to my blog and that’s how I found the content. It turns out he ripped off several of my articles, a few from SmartBrief on Leadership, some from Kevin Eikenberry and others.
So what can you do when you’re in this situation? What do you do when someone else passes your work off as their own? How do you handle it when someone else takes credit for work you did? Here are a few thoughts:
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2011-05-02 09:33:002013-11-10 18:08:51How to Handle When Someone Else Takes Credit for Your Work
We all have dreams and goals. The biggest difference between people who achieve them and people who don’t is the act of actually DOING. Do you have goals and things you want to achieve? Professional aspirations? Personal bucket list items?
Let me ask this – what’s stopping you from starting on them?
I don’t tend to get motivational on this blog (every time someone asks me if I’m a motivational speaker I can’t help but think of that Saturday Night Live Chris Farley skit). But today I’m serving up a little motivation, Yoda style.
Luke whined “All right. I’ll give it a try.”
Yoda gave Luke an attitude adjustment “No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”
What would Yoda say to you if you talked to him about your goals and your progress toward them? That’s what I thought.
I’m here to be your Yoda. I’ll share some experiences related to my goal of getting my book One Piece of Paper published (CLICK HERE to get your copy of the book). Hopefully my story can help you on your way toward achieving your goals. Here are some great first steps you can take right now to help you move toward achieving your goals.
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2011-03-14 05:53:002018-06-25 21:51:28Yoda’s Three Steps to Achieving Your Goals
You would think with all the platforms out there that make networking so easy that people would be better at it. Unfortunately bad behavior still runs rampant and I get to see more than my fair share of networking implosions.
There are a few key areas you need to royally screw up if you want to achieve “debacle” status on networking. This post is a guide for how you can most efficiently and effectively burn bridges, annoy people, and destroy your network as fast as possible. This is NOT about how to properly maintain your network as explained in this post (CLICK HERE) – this is about apocalyptic network destruction.
Let’s define the target area you’re going to drop bombs all over. Your network is the sum of all relationships (personal and professional) you’ve built over the years as well as the relationships of those individuals with their friends and colleagues. I’m going to show you not only how to destroy your own network but also how you can best damage the networks of the people in your network. We’re talking second-degree of separation destruction here folks. And for some bonus tips on how to further destroy your network, read this post too by clicking here.
https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png00Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2011-03-07 06:01:002023-07-24 19:32:34How to be a Networking Disaster
Today’s post is by David Chapman, Director of Marketing at Webrageous. He’s contributed here on the blog before – CLICK HERE to read his prior work. Learn more about him at the end of the post. Here’s David…
