Tag: Business Blogging
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When It Makes Sense to Outsource Social Media Marketing
While I believe most businesses should handle social media in-house, here I share at least one compelling reason to hire a consultant or outsource your social media marketing (this video was created for Entrepreneur magazine’s “60 Second Solutions” series): http://youtu.be/CW9kmOuepBg
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Why You Should Manage Your Own Social Media
I make my living as a business-aligned communication strategist. Basically, that means businesses and brands hire me to create and publish editorial content that engages their audience in ways that relate to specific business goals and objectives. While consultants like me offer a valuable service, managing your company or brand’s social media in-house is a better option,…
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Commentary Should Remain the Lifeblood of Blogs
Gawker Media founder Nick Denton still has a problem with readers’ comments: Apparently, they’re boring. At SXSW 2012 in Austin, Texas, Denton — whose media empire includes such popular blogs as Gawker.com, Lifehacker.com and Gizmodo.com — reiterated his disdain for allowing just anyone to comment on his company’s blog posts. He says comments have become…
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The 10 Ds of Creating a Social Media Use Policy
There’s been no shortage of news these days about companies getting in trouble because of what they or a third-party marketers have done when taking to the socially-powered airwaves. A common theme among those who find themselves caught in the crosshairs of the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Trade Commission or even a company’s…
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Why Negativity Can Be Good for Your Business Blog
You know who doesn’t love a cheerleader? Customers. Those who post only positive blog entries on their company blog run the risk of appearing superficial and pushy. A better course of action would be to allow employees to post content on the company blog that might not be construed as all pixie dust and roses,…
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Why Big Corporations Are Putting the Brakes on Social Media
When it comes to the care and tending of corporate blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, a new study suggests big business social media may be suffering from neglect. In recent report by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth social media use among America’s largest companies is losing steam. Specifically, less…
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10 Tips for Better Content Marketing
Last week I wrote about the importance of creating and publishing original content as part of your overall marketing strategy (see Why Content Marketing is King). Today, I offer my 10 tips for better content marketing: 1. Be goal-oriented: You need to create a business-aligned communications strategy where everything links back to company goals. Without such…
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Why Content Marketing Is King
When it comes to marketing strategies, content marketing has just been crowned king, far surpassing search engine marketing, public relations and even print, television and radio advertising as the preferred marketing tool for today’s business-to-business entrepreneur. Late this summer, HiveFire, a Cambridge, Mass.-based internet marketing software solutions company, surveyed nearly 400 marketing professionals about the…
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Are Facebook Posts Penalized by Using Third-Party Tools?
If your goal is to boost engagement on your Facebook Page, you might not want to invite a third-party API (application programming interface) to your online get together. Using third-party tools like Hootsuite, Sendible, Shoutlet and Postling to schedule and post content to your Facebook Page can actually decrease your likes and comments by 80…
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Create a Business-aligned Communication Strategy
When I worked in the corporate world (think global corporation with 30,000 employees and a Board of Directors complete with an audit committee), this was the time of year when everyone in the enterprise received their final financial targets for the following fiscal quarter, as well as numbers for all of the next fiscal year.…
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How The Fortune 500 Uses Social Media
Just out from the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is a study targeting the use of social media by America’s largest companies — the Fortune 500. In particular, the research examines what the big boys are doing when it comes to using blogs, Twitter and Facebook. And the results show…
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Putting the Focus on B2B Blogging
If you’re responsible for marketing or business communications at a B2B company and you’re still on the fence about incorporating a blog into your business-aligned communication strategy, this should be of interest. HiveFire, a Cambridge, Mass.-based internet marketing software solutions company, has released the results of a marketing research survey that suggests many business-to-business companies…
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The Benefits of Business Blogging
Is blogging about your business worth your time? Here, I outline the potential benefits of setting up a blog to post company news and events.
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Why Every Online Retailer Should Have a Blog
To the average online shopper, you’re just another small retailer trying to earn a buck on the Internet. If you sell on eBay, all a buyer knows about you is right there in your product listing and perhaps your seller rating, and that isn’t much. If you operate an eCommerce-enabled website, maybe you have an…
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The Best Blog Spot
When planning a business blog, the first question is often the most difficult: What is the best domain hosting strategy? You have three options, each with benefits and drawbacks: Standalone domain (e.g., businessname-blog.com): A standalone domain, also known as a top level domain, is separate from your business’s website domain. That can often be a…
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Four For Friday: Google Caffeine and What it Means for Your Business
This week’s Four For Friday is a little different. Rather than asking you, our readers, to weigh in on four issues currently impacting businesses, today I’m asking someone else to answer four questions of my own (questions that similarly reflect the current climate in business). If this goes well–meaning if you like the format and…
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5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Abandon Your Blog for Facebook
In the rush to create a Facebook Fan Page to promote their business or brand, many companies are neglecting their existing blogs. As a result, thousands of business blogs have been left to rot, leading potential customers and business partners alike to draw their own conclusions as to why a company’s blog hasn’t been updated…
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5 Tips to Attract More Blog Comments
As companies turn to Facebook to boost their business, they notice more people posting Facebook Status Updates, Notes, Pictures, and Video than are posting comments on their company blog. As a result, business owners and marketing managers tend to do one of two things: Discontinue blogging altogether, because all the action is on Facebook. Wonder…
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Tough New FTC Regs for Bloggers
For the last year or so, I’ve been warning my clients that the Federal Trade Commission is becoming more involved in regulating online commerce, specifically in terms of disclosures relating to online content. In particular, I’ve been telling companies that the FTC is likely to implement new guidelines that will bring blogs, Internet forums, message…
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Start a Blog For Your Business: Make sure you examine your business goals before jumping on the blogging bandwagon
Business blogs attract search engines, display your startup’s personality and encourage customer participation–a form of marketing that startups crave and money alone can’t buy. But before you jump on the business blogging bandwagon, get familiar with the basics and choose a blogging solution that’s right for you and your startup’s goals. Every blog needs a…