Are You Blogging in Your Batcave?!
•
1 like•1,248 views
This session was created for bloggers attending Atlantic #BlogJam2015. My goal here is to offer practical ideas for building your blog content, brand awareness, community and community engagement online using your blog. This session is for business owners with a website because if you're not blogging regularly on your business website these days you're missing opportunities. If you pair a consistent blogging effort with an active social media presence, Google indexes new content on your website, tweets, FB & LinkedIn posts, Instagrams, Periscopes, Blabs, and everywhere else you’re posting online. All your online business activity boosts your Google ranking.
Recommended
More Related Content
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Featured
Featured (20)
Are You Blogging in Your Batcave?!
- 1. Don’t Forget Social Media is Your Superhero Sidekick! Are You Blogging in Your Batcave?
- 2. Do you know what’s awesome about YOUR blog?
- 3. YOU have 100% control over your own content on YOUR blog!
- 4. YOU choose which conversations to participate in by creating & sharing targeted content!
- 5. Combine YOUR blogging with social media know-how, and…
- 6. YOU can build your community with reciprocity, consistency and strategy!
- 7. Do you get OVERWHELMED thinking about what makes YOUR blog unique?
- 8. There are A LOT of blogs online… over 164 million!
- 9. How do you avoid creating a “Me too!” blog? YOUR blog has a general theme, but…
- 10. Does YOUR blog have a specific NICHE FOCUS?
- 11. Your NICHE FOCUS can… • cut through the noise online by offering something more specific & relevant…
- 12. Your NICHE FOCUS can… • get your blog noticed (& read) with a clearly defined target audience…
- 13. Your NICHE FOCUS can… • help you build relationships with the blog readers who matter most to you!
- 14. Here’s an example… The benefits of YOGA for 20-somethings who want to create a balanced life. Niche Topic: General Theme:
- 15. QUICK SURVEY: In one or two words, what’s your blog’s general theme? So...what’s YOUR story?!
- 16. Do you have a blogging niche? (i.e. a niche topic, demographic, focus?) So...what’s YOUR story?!
- 17. SHOULD you have a niche? Are you still really interested in your current blog topic? So...what’s YOUR story?!
- 18. Do you know what makes YOUR blog unique? GOOD! Let’s talk CONTENT…
- 19. What type of blogging VOICE do YOU have?
- 22. . . . stories? . . . case studies? . . . lists? . . . slides? . . . video? . . . photos & graphics? . . . live streaming? What type (or types) of content do YOU use?
- 23. Have you thought about WHY you use YOUR particular style, approach or type of content? Let’s talk about YOUR content!
- 24. What types of content suit YOUR blog & brand story BEST? Have you thought about your visual content? You should!
- 25. t h e n e x t w e b . c o m
- 26. Types of Branded VISUAL Content Branded Photos & Graphics Visual Captions
- 27. Types of Branded VISUAL Content Visual Bullets
- 28. Types of Branded VISUAL Content Comparisons
- 29. Types of Branded VISUAL Content Diagrams
- 30. Types of Branded VISUAL Content Photos (& selfies) Memes
- 31. Types of Branded VISUAL Content Word Art
- 32. Let’s talk about VIDEO content. Video is expected to account for about 84% of internet traffic by 2018. That’s up from 78% in 2014. Video is HOT!
- 33. Vlogs (video blogging) Types of Video Content
- 34. Periscope (live casting) Types of Video Content
- 35. Blab (live casting) Types of Video Content
- 36. After you spend time creating good content, the next step is to SHARE your BLOG on social media!
- 37. Use a feature graphic when you share blog posts and include a link! You’ve got this! Social Media Sharing BASICS…
- 38. Use a feature graphic when you share blog posts and include a link!
- 39. Add your logo or your word- mark to graphics whenever possible & appropriate! Social Media Sharing BASICS…
- 40. Add your logo or your word- mark to graphics whenever possible & appropriate! Social Media Sharing BASICS…
- 41. Customize blog graphics to fit each social media platform. Social Media Sharing BASICS…
- 42. Social Media Sharing BASICS… Customize blog graphics to fit each social media platform.
- 43. Share your posts more than once, especially on platforms where the newsfeed moves quickly. Social Media Sharing BASICS…
- 44. What do YOUR followers want? ADD VALUE! Pay attention to posts & topics that get the most engagement.
- 45. ADD VALUE! Use questions, surveys and polls.
- 46. Ask what your target audience likes and wants. ADD VALUE!
- 47. Pay attention to rants! Social listening helps you discover what people in your target communities want & need. ADD VALUE!
- 48. Being ACTIVE & engaging ADDS VALUE. YOU FIRST! Build your community by engaging. Don’t wait for others to engage first. busy!Get
- 49. Avoid fire- hosing your followers with your own content by following a 1-in-4 rule… Being ACTIVE & engaging ADDS VALUE.
- 50. Law of Reciprocity Reward followers who engage with you by engaging with them. Focusing on reciprocity builds engagement, relationships & community. Being ACTIVE & engaging ADDS VALUE.
- 51. Celebrate Special Days with YOUR Community. What holidays, events, national & international awareness days does your community recognize? Being ACTIVE & engaging ADDS VALUE.
- 52. Celebrate Special Days with YOUR Community. When you share timely content & celebrate special occasions that are relevant to your community, you strengthen your connections.
- 53. Create a list of special dates. Include the dates on YOUR annual blogging & social media editorial calendars. Celebrate Special Days with YOUR Community.
- 54. Make sharing FUN & EASY! Add social share buttons using a plugin like Shareaholic. You can create tweetable quotes in the body of YOUR blog that can be shared with a plugin like ClickToTweet.
- 55. Be a Headline Hero. Create engaging headlines. Use these tactics. Using Numbers – Why Facebook Gets 9 Billion Video Views a Day The Curiosity Gap – To look at her, you would never guess what’s in her pocket. Ask a Question – Do you know the number one thing recruiters look for on LinkedIn? Element of Surprise – Ten Reasons Why Ducks Just Don’t Get Social Media Heightened Emotion & Hyperbole – I Think My Head Just Exploded… Have You Seen This? Use Lists – Ten Facebook Posts That ALWAYS Get Liked
- 56. Share! Engage! Share! Engage! (Rinse and repeat.) Find your community. Figure out what works best. Be active. Let your goals inform your content. (It’s social media. So make sure you have some SOCIAL goals too!) Post & engage when your community is active online.
- 57. Don’t Forget Social Media is Your Superhero Sidekick! Are You Blogging in Your Batcave?
Editor's Notes
- Your website or your blog, is your home online, your hub. It is the only place you will have 100% control over your own content. What inspires me about that is that you can choose which conversation or conversations you want to participate in the most, then develop your own content freely as part of that conversation online. Creating blog content, then sharing it online, injects your voice into conversations of your choosing. Beyond producing and sharing content, it is reciprocity, consistency and strategy that help a blog, and a blogger, grow and evolve. Prior to 2014, I had been hobby-blogging on and off for over a decade on a variety of topics. At the end of 2013, I decided to FOCUS exclusively on blogging as part of the social media marketing strategy for my business. The main focus of my blog is sharing social media expertise with business owners who are doing their own DIY social media marketing. With this new focus, I also set goals. I blog to use my writing skills, to exercise and develop my graphic design & content development skills. I blog to stay current in my industry and as part of my committed to myself to be well informed around social media marketing topics and to build my expertise.
- So what’s your story?! What’s the general theme of your content right now? Do you have a blogging or market niche? Are you still interested in your current topics or have things gotten stale? Have you lost interest in your own content or are you still passionate about it? Maybe you’re some where in between. Do you know what makes YOUR blog unique? Is it your approach? What is it? As you develop your own voice on your blog, make sure you are creating original content that is targeted to your audience, your community, your readers, your customers. Do you feel prepared to do this? Could you sit downright now and write a list of 20 topics you want to write about? If not, you probably need to spend a bit of time thinking about your blogging goals. Do you know which types of content tell your brand story best? What type of content supports your goals? In some cases the type of content you choose to share will dictate which social media platforms you need to participate in. What I mean is, if you’re creating videos, you can’t avoid YouTube forever. Or, if you’re putting out a lot of live updates and news items but you’re not on Twitter yet, you are out of the loop. If your market is Moms, and you don’t have an active account on Pinterest, you’re missing out on inbound web traffic that produces consistent sales conversions for that market. I’m assuming that you know your target market and you’ve done some research online to find out where your target market hangs out online...
- After you identify your niche, you will probably choose some key topics & the different types of content that could be used to explore those topics. Then, you will begin to develop your BLOG VOICE: you’ll decide your register (whether your blog will be more formal or informal). You’ll decide tone. You might be blunt & funny, or lively & challenging. You might be a sarcastic know-it-all or short & sweet. Maybe you’re an insightful storyteller. Maybe your blogging voice is calm & reassuring. What type of voice suits you, your brand identity and your blog content? There are many different types of blog content as well ...stories ...case studies ...how to blogs …checklists …many types of graphics ...many types of video and even ...live casting. Have you thought about WHY you use certain types of content now? Have you explored what other types of content might suit your brand story?
- Branded graphics are graphics with an overlay of your logo or word-mark. For almost all of my social media and blog content, I use Photoshop. Photoshop is prohibitive though for a lot of bloggers and business owners for a couple of reasons: it’s expensive software and you have to have some training and practice to execute your graphics. It also requires an artistic eye and some basic graphic design know-how. A great tool that I recommend to anyone who doesn’t use Photoshop, and has no interest in learning it is, Canva. Canva has design templates available that are already appropriately sized for different social media platforms, and they can work very well as feature images on your website or blog. I made this graphic on the left for Lift Communication with a different tool. One platform where I don’t use Photoshop for my branded graphics is Instagram. Instagram is a platform where all the content is generated on your phone. For branded graphics, I’m using the “Over” app. Like many phone apps it’s just a couple of dollars. And you can find out more about it, by Googling “made with over app.” Basically, it allows you to search Google from within the app to locate .png files online. In all likelihood, your logo is probably already online in a .png format with a transparent background, ready to be placed over whatever graphic you choose using the Over app. You can also choose from different font types to create text overlay on the same graphic as I’ve done here. The branded image on the right, is a visual caption that Converse posted on their Facebook page to invite followers over to their Pinterest page – very simple yet engaging, fun, and right on brand.
- Video is hot! Video is expected to account for about 84% of internet traffic by 2018, which is up from 78% in 2014. Yes, this statistic includes Netflix, Hulu, Shomi, Amazon, YouTube and all internet video streaming. But video content is hot on social media and your blog too. This year, both Twitter & Facebook enabled native video uploads. 30 second videos can be shot on your phone then uploaded & edited directly to Twitter. Native video uploads on Facebook can be up to 1.75 GB or 45 minutes long (whichever comes first). Let’s compare Facebook and YouTube for a second: Facebook videos now attract 3 billion video views a day. In August 2015, videos uploaded to YouTube generated over 55.8 billion views. You might wonder why Facebook videos get more views than YouTube videos each month. On Facebook, videos generate significantly more shares and engagement. That sharing extends the video’s reach significantly.
- Vlogging or video blogging can be done with professional equipment and it can also be done informally using video shot on your smart phone, then uploaded to YouTube, and embedded on your blog. If you’re going to shot video on your photo, always remember to hold your phone and shoot in a horizontal position. Social Media is full of micro-vlogging these days. Short videos are uploaded & shared directly to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram very easily.
- Periscope is platform where you can host or stream content live online. Periscoping, or ‘scoping, is very informal and often used to host informal chats or Q&As with viewers. Periscope playbacks are available for up to 24 hours after each broadcast. But there are tools like Katch (with a K) which allow you to capture a replay of your Periscope broadcast. Then you can use that replay on your blog. Periscope works well for personalizing your brand, for the personalized live casting of events, for behind-the-scenes content, and one-on-one interaction.
- Blab is a brand new live casting social media platform where you can host or co-host an interview or panel discussion live online. The platform allows your viewers to watch anonymously online or login with their Twitter account and interact throughout the broadcast. Blabs can be off-the-record or recorded and on-the-record. Recorded blabs will be available for replays and an embed code is emailed to you almost immediately after your Blab ends. Blab replays can be uploaded directly from Blab to YouTube, or you can embed the video on your blog. Sharing your blab replays as video content on your blog, can create very personal branded content.
- Blab is a brand new live casting social media platform where you can host or co-host an interview or panel discussion live online. The platform allows your viewers to watch anonymously online or login with their Twitter account and interact throughout the broadcast. Blabs can be off-the-record or recorded and on-the-record. Recorded blabs will be available for replays and an embed code is emailed to you almost immediately after your Blab ends. Blab replays can be uploaded directly from Blab to YouTube, or you can embed the video on your blog. Sharing your blab replays as video content on your blog, can create very personal branded content.
- After you spend time creating good branded content for your blog, it’s important to share that content on social media. Here are some of the basics to keep in mind: Always include graphics or video to capture the viewer’s attention & add links to bring traffic to your blog posts when you share on social media. Add your logo, or your word-mark whenever it’s possible & appropriate on your blog’s visual content to continually increase your brand visibility online. Customize your blog graphics to fit each social media platform. And that’s where a tool like Canva can come in very handy. Share your posts more than once, especially on Twitter where the live feed moves quickly.
- After you spend time creating good branded content for your blog, it’s important to share that content on social media. Here are some of the basics to keep in mind: Always include graphics or video to capture the viewer’s attention & add links to bring traffic to your blog posts when you share on social media. Add your logo, or your word-mark whenever it’s possible & appropriate on your blog’s visual content to continually increase your brand visibility online. Customize your blog graphics to fit each social media platform. And that’s where a tool like Canva can come in very handy. Share your posts more than once, especially on Twitter where the live feed moves quickly.
- Adding value to your community can mean different things. Sometimes it means entertaining them. Sometimes it means giving them information they can use. How do you find out what kind of content your community want to see? On a blog you can use common tactics like questions, surveys and polls. But another way to constantly and easily find out what your community needs is to engage in social listening. Listen for the squeaky wheels. What are the people in your target market complaining about? What are they frustrated by? What concerns are they expressing online? Whenever someone is complaining you are scratching at the surface of an unexpressed need or desire. Filling that void makes for valuable and targeted content.
- Adding value to your community can mean different things. Sometimes it means entertaining them. Sometimes it means giving them information they can use. How do you find out what kind of content your community want to see? On a blog you can use common tactics like questions, surveys and polls. But another way to constantly and easily find out what your community needs is to engage in social listening. Listen for the squeaky wheels. What are the people in your target market complaining about? What are they frustrated by? What concerns are they expressing online? Whenever someone is complaining you are scratching at the surface of an unexpressed need or desire. Filling that void makes for valuable and targeted content.
- On social media, you can’t expect engagement if you’re not actively giving it in return. So, every conversation about sharing on social media, should start with an look at your own interactions. If you were to rate your own engagement, are you closer to one or closer to ten? On social media, use an 80-20 Rule for sharing content -- where only 20% of what you share is your own blog content and 80% is content from others that you curate and share to your followers. This is content related to your brand, blog or business, that you know will bring value to your target community. The 80-20 rule allows you to build community effectively because it’s not all about you. Follow the Law of Reciprocity to build engagement, relationships and community. Give to receive! Reward the people who engage with you by engaging with them. Everyone wants to receive engagement on their blog & on social media, yet so few are actively engaging with other people’s content themselves. Share timely content celebrating special occasions relevant to your community. What holidays, events, national and international awareness days is your community interested in? Include these in your blogging and social media marketing editorial calendars.
- Every blog and website needs social share buttons so readers can share your posts easily to social media platforms. You can use a plugin like TweetDis or ClickToTweet to turn notable quotes into callout tweets in the body of your blog. This encourages others to share your blog by sharing tweetable quotes, take-aways, statistics or a catchy phrase from the blog. Give your blog readers a great tweetable that will add value to their followers as well. Everyone wants to share tweets that are smart, valuable or funny and relevant to their followers!
- Headlines are so important on your blog! Social share buttons are usually set up to pull your blog’s headline when you share on social media. It’s very useful to understand what makes people click to encourage more engagement. These are a few of them: The Human Curiosity Gap – We are all drawn to answer unanswered questions. One tactic that the Upworthy platform made infamous in 2012 was to create a curiosity gap in their headlines. Headlines like: “MOST OF THESE PEOPLE DO THE RIGHT THING, BUT THE GUYS AT THE END…I WISH I COULD YELL AGT THEM!” even something as simple as “YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS VIRAL VIDEO.” Upworthy-style headlines quickly became the latest greatest click bait tool. But we did learn a lot about what makes people click from Upworthy headlines. Author Tom French calls reader curiosity “the engine.” Curiosity is what drives the reader forward. The curiosity can only be satisified by reading the story, as in a classic whodunit novel. Use the Element of Surprise – Put odd and interesting things next to one another. In some cases, Heightened emotion in a headline engages the reader. This often becomes hyperbole. Think of every headline you’ve ever seen claiming something is EPIC. Using exaggeration can be effective, but this type of headline works best when it’ s a heightened emotion that is authentic response expressed well in a headline. Headlines where the writer is authentically outraged or inspired or amazed connect with us, pique our interest, and draw us in. Ask Questions – Studies show us that using a Question Mark at the end increases engagement, so pay attention to that detail. Questions that use the words YOU and YOUR get greater engagement, Use Lists: These might be “How To” Lists, “Checklists”, “Top Lists” (like Top 10 Packing Tips When You’re Flying With One Carry-on, Top 25 Travel Bloggers in Their 20s, Top 5 European Destinations for BackPackers). Using Numbers and Statistics makes readers click more often. Headlines can use this tactic even if the article has no stats in it. For example “Your Answer to These 3 Parenting Questions, Might Shock You.” I’ve written more about using headlines to engage your audience in an earlier blog post. The link is below.
- Find your customer community on social media platforms. Where are they? Meeting them where they already are, allows you to step into a platforms where you know you will be able to connect with your target community. How do you find out where your target market is online? (1) Use Google. You can find out a lot by reading social media research and survey statistics online. (2) Also, don’t forget to just ASK them. So now you’ve joined social media Platforms where your target audiences are. Now what? Your next job is to figure out how to use that particular platform to its greatest advantage. All social media platforms are different. There’s a learning curve as you figure out the ins and outs of each one. The good news is this isn’t rocket science. Once you hang out a bit and figure out what works well and what doesn’t work as well. You will start to think about how YOU can create content that will be successful on that platform AND will also help achieve your particular blogging goals. Become active on your social media accounts. How active is active? You should be posting and interacting on a regular basis. Engage with everyone and pay attention to the people who take the time to engage with you. It’s the simple idea f reciprocity to get you started and keep you going as your build your online community. Ask yourself: am I being personable & engaging others? Some marketers have a very hard time connecting on a personable level on social media because their approach is to fire-hose their followers with content without taking time or taking an interest in listening and connecting. Be a listener who shares 80% of the time. That means, ask about the other person, listen, follow it up by later with a shout out and share about your connections in your community, curate good content from other people that is relevant to your followers & share it. Give social media interactions and posts your personal touch. That’s why a quote retweet is often better than a direct retweet. Make a personal connection. Did you know that the most powerful word you can ever use is someone’s name. Get in the habit of using names to address people on social media when acknowledging their activity and their content. After you get the hang of things, start to pay attention to when your followers & target audience are active online so you can post and engage with them in real time.