The document provides an overview of how to build an enormously popular and successful blog in 4.5 steps: 1) define goals and commitment, 2) choose a focus and measure engagement, 3) build a content calendar mixing niche/broad and timely/evergreen posts, measuring engagement for each category, 4) expand the focus and audience while maintaining engagement, and 5) continue improving writing, marketing, relationships and technical skills. The key is iterative testing and measurement to engage existing readers more over time through marginal gains in each step of the process.
Learn why social media is an important way to get your message out. Find out how the conversational model is different online, and how to use metrics to plan your strategic outreach. Best practices for Twitter will also be covered. One of Four presentations given during the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Councils "Not Your Momma's New Media Training"
Advance your business with Twitter.
Whether you want to find the right social media tools to connect with local customers, enhance your existing sales funnel, or just get the word out, oneforty shows you how Twitter can efficiently grow your business.
Learn why social media is an important way to get your message out. Find out how the conversational model is different online, and how to use metrics to plan your strategic outreach. Best practices for Twitter will also be covered. One of Four presentations given during the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Councils "Not Your Momma's New Media Training"
Advance your business with Twitter.
Whether you want to find the right social media tools to connect with local customers, enhance your existing sales funnel, or just get the word out, oneforty shows you how Twitter can efficiently grow your business.
Launches, SEO, Adwords, Twitter, Blog, Search Engine, Keyword ResearchMike Roberts
- Embarrassing Mistakes I've Made In Launches
- Things I've Learned
- Detailed Launch Plan for SpyFu SEO RECON Files (Agency Ready White Label SEO Reporting).
See the presentation here: http://vimeo.com/14965166
Finding Your Voice: A Social Media Content Development WorkshopBig Big Design
Not sure what to say on Twitter? Looking for a relevant status update? Trying to connect your mission with your audience? In this content development workshop, Cynthia Closkey of Big Big Design helps you develop the social media style of your organization’s mission. The workshop centers on an exercise to determine the voice of your organization. Updating your social media is not only about what to say, but how to say it.
Creating and Building Your Virtual ImageHannah Morgan
Do you have the right kind of digital dirt? Owning digital terrain is a key factor in being found online. We’ll look at strategies and tools to help you be the master of your dirt!
1.What are the first steps to take in building the right message
2.How do you rise to page one of search rankings without devoting every minute of your time
3.How do you fix a tarnished online reputation
4.Tips and tricks for monitoring and keeping the soil fertile
Presented by: Hannah Morgan of Career Sherpa.net
Social Media Engagement For The Resort IndustrMilena Regos
Social media is a great way for ski resorts to engage with their customers. David La Plante from Twelve Horses, Eric Hoffman from Park City, Michelle Evans from Grouse Mountain and Milena Regos from Diamond Peak discuss why and how ski resorts can create conversation with their customers.
Social Media Engagement For The Resort IndustryEric Hoffman
You’ve lit up your resort’s blog, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Flickr. Now what? Developing a social media brand strategy that delivers results is more than just shoveling content and grooming blog posts. It takes an entirely different approach from traditional brand PR and resort marketing to be successful. In this informative panel, we’ve assembled four industry social media evangelists to present their experience and techniques around topics of authenticity, reputation, managing bad pr, social influence and social objects, gifting, promotion, and most importantly, managing multivariate brand conversations with your skiers and riders.
The creative process in blogging (and life)Jillian Leslie
Practical tips on writing, the creative process, and blogging. Presented by Jillian Leslie of Catch My Party at Bloggy Boot Camp, in Denver on September 17, 2011.
Power Blogging: Make Your Business Blog Work HarderAngela Booth
Got a business blog, or want to start one? Blogging and social media can be your most powerful tool. These tips will make your blog work harder for you.
Launches, SEO, Adwords, Twitter, Blog, Search Engine, Keyword ResearchMike Roberts
- Embarrassing Mistakes I've Made In Launches
- Things I've Learned
- Detailed Launch Plan for SpyFu SEO RECON Files (Agency Ready White Label SEO Reporting).
See the presentation here: http://vimeo.com/14965166
Finding Your Voice: A Social Media Content Development WorkshopBig Big Design
Not sure what to say on Twitter? Looking for a relevant status update? Trying to connect your mission with your audience? In this content development workshop, Cynthia Closkey of Big Big Design helps you develop the social media style of your organization’s mission. The workshop centers on an exercise to determine the voice of your organization. Updating your social media is not only about what to say, but how to say it.
Creating and Building Your Virtual ImageHannah Morgan
Do you have the right kind of digital dirt? Owning digital terrain is a key factor in being found online. We’ll look at strategies and tools to help you be the master of your dirt!
1.What are the first steps to take in building the right message
2.How do you rise to page one of search rankings without devoting every minute of your time
3.How do you fix a tarnished online reputation
4.Tips and tricks for monitoring and keeping the soil fertile
Presented by: Hannah Morgan of Career Sherpa.net
Social Media Engagement For The Resort IndustrMilena Regos
Social media is a great way for ski resorts to engage with their customers. David La Plante from Twelve Horses, Eric Hoffman from Park City, Michelle Evans from Grouse Mountain and Milena Regos from Diamond Peak discuss why and how ski resorts can create conversation with their customers.
Social Media Engagement For The Resort IndustryEric Hoffman
You’ve lit up your resort’s blog, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Flickr. Now what? Developing a social media brand strategy that delivers results is more than just shoveling content and grooming blog posts. It takes an entirely different approach from traditional brand PR and resort marketing to be successful. In this informative panel, we’ve assembled four industry social media evangelists to present their experience and techniques around topics of authenticity, reputation, managing bad pr, social influence and social objects, gifting, promotion, and most importantly, managing multivariate brand conversations with your skiers and riders.
The creative process in blogging (and life)Jillian Leslie
Practical tips on writing, the creative process, and blogging. Presented by Jillian Leslie of Catch My Party at Bloggy Boot Camp, in Denver on September 17, 2011.
Power Blogging: Make Your Business Blog Work HarderAngela Booth
Got a business blog, or want to start one? Blogging and social media can be your most powerful tool. These tips will make your blog work harder for you.
Social Media Overview: For NYU New Marketer's Bootcamp 2012
How to build an enormously popular and successful blog
1. How to build
an enormously popular
and successful blog
by Andrew Konoff
Saturday, 19 January, 13
2. Warning!
Participation enforced.
Bad language ahead.
I’ll talk about philosophy.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
3. An overview
1. It’s a process, not a guarantee
2. There are four and a half steps:
• define your goals.
• choose a focus.
• build a diverse content calendar.
• expand to a bigger audience.
• do some other shit that’s helpful.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
4. Stuff we won’t do
• Talk about platforms (e.g. Tumblr)
• Talk about specific topics (e.g. cats)
• Talk about media types (e.g.
infographics, vlogs, podcasts)
• Care about haters
Saturday, 19 January, 13
6. Why listen to me?
• I’m the marketing guy at GoInstant,
and this is exactly what I’m doing there.
• I was the Saskatchewanderer. Ran a
travel blog that had 173,000 unique
visitors in four months, 45,000 YouTube
views, and 2,000 Twitter followers.
• I’ll be using these as examples of what
to do and what not to do.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
9. Processes involve feedback
• Each step in this process generates
outcomes, which we will measure.
• Some outcomes are better than others.
• If our metrics are well-chosen, the
numbers show which outcomes are good.
• The numbers don’t matter if the metrics
don’t measure your goals.
• If your goals suck, that’s another matter.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
10. Step 1: Pick your goals
• Ask yourself: what should your blog get
you? How will you know you’ve
succeeded?
• Money?
• Sales leads?
• Expert status?
• Laid?
• Text can do anything but write itself.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
11. Define your commitment.
• How much money and time and energy
do you have?
• Our process involves prioritization, so
don’t worry too much if you’re
resource-poor.
• Mostly, ask this for your own sanity.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
12. Question time!
What’s your blogging goal? Do you have
more than one?
Saturday, 19 January, 13
13. Step 2: Find your focus.
• It has two parts:
• Your thesis, argument, or insight.
• Your audience. Who is passionate
about what you have to say?
• GoInstant: Customer experiences
matter for business.
• Saskatchewanderer: Saskatchewan is
full of cool shit.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
14. Focus Metrics:
• Forget about audience size. Care about
engagement per reader.
• Lots of readers with little interest equals
bad bad bad die die die
• Measure time on page, subscriptions, social
shares, number of posts read per visit,
comments, etc. etc.
• Engagement is the fundamental building
block of every good blog, app, relationship.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
15. Focus Metrics:
• The proof of a growth opportunity:
you want each post to generate a
higher rate of marginal engagement.
• If I got 10 views last week, I want 12
next week, and 15 next week, and 20
next week.
• Marginal gains: +2, +3, +5. Up and to
the right for the 2nd derivative.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
17. Question time!
What’s your blog’s focus?
How’s your engagement?
Is it a growth opportunity?
Does it accomplish your goals?
Saturday, 19 January, 13
18. Step 3: Build a content calendar
• The secret? Mix up these two axes:
• Audience: Niche <--> Broad
• Durability: Timely <--> Evergreen
• Take risks to really engage people.
Some types of post are riskier than
others.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
20. Content Cal Metrics
• Preliminary work: define blog
categories for matrix quadrants.
• How many shares?
• How many views in the first day?
After the first week?
• How much time on page?
• Then compare the categories.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
21. Question time!
Make a post idea per quadrant.
Which work best for your audience?
Do some posts get more views later in
their life?
Saturday, 19 January, 13
22. Step 4: Expand
• It’s time to build out your audience by
expanding the focus of your blog:
• to add another highly engaged,
closely related audience.
• to include a thesis that is
consistent with your core focus’s
thesis.
• Remember: focus = thesis + audience
Saturday, 19 January, 13
23. A lesson from Lakatos
Imre Lakatos is the coolest Hungarian
philosopher of science ever.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
26. Same for blogs
• For GoInstant:
• core of “customer experience
matters,” surrounded by “X matters
for customer experiences.”
Saturday, 19 January, 13
27. Mistakes
• As the Saskatchewanderer:
• Saskatchewan is cool!
• After the Saskatchewanderer:
• All purpose travel writing! Please for
the love of god hire me I’m
unemployed actually I’ll write
anything just c’mon please try
Saturday, 19 January, 13
28. Better idea
• If Saskatchewan has all this cool
stuff, I can find other beautiful stuff in
other unpopular Canadian
destinations.
• Audience: broke ass Canucks.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
29. Expansion Metrics
• Exact same as focus.
• Are your readers highly engaged?
• Is this a real growth opportunity? Is
the rate of growth itself increasing?
Saturday, 19 January, 13
30. Step 4.5: Everything else
• Get good at writing by fucking up constantly.
• Marketing matters.
• Market to your audiences. Test.
• Build relationships with other bloggers
through guest blogs.
• SEO benefit is huge.
• Give a fuck about the technical parts of
writing and of running a blog.
Saturday, 19 January, 13
32. Thank you so much!
Share the presentation:
http://bit.ly/bigbigblog
Follow me on Twitter:
@andrewkonoff
and HAVE AN AWESOME PODCAMP!
Saturday, 19 January, 13