Tag Archives: Blogs

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Blogging 101: The Importance of Keyword Phrases, an Idea Collection Process, and Writing Schedule

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Typewriter Six (6) months have quickly gone by since I started this blog.  Without a doubt, it's been one of the most educational, rewarding, and fulfilling experiences I've ever had.  For this post, I hope you won't mind me sharing some key lessons.

1. Keyword Phrases / Keywords are Vitally Important in Titles and URLs
Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools helped me identify the keywords and keyword phrases currently driving my blog traffic from Google searches.  For my posts landing on the first pages of Google searches, it's due to specific keywords or phrases in either the title or post URL.  Here are some examples:

* Example A — "state of inbound marketing"
* Example B — "best invitation on LinkedIn"
* Example C — "inbound marketing by brian halligan and dharmesh shah"
* Example D — "charlie rose ken auletta"

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays an important role in blogging.  Since I'm not a famous blogger with hundreds of other bloggers linking to my blog, I have to pay close attention to optimizing my titles and URLs for Google searches.  In each blog post title, I purposely use a keyword phrase or keyword that I think will have relevance or authority in Google.  Each of these blog posts earned a first-page Google search result because of the keyword phrasings I highlighted above:

* Example A — 5 Insights from HubSpot's The State of Marketing 2010 Webinar
* Example B — 3 Reasons Why I Rejected Your LinkedIn Invitation
* Example C — Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah Levels The Marketing Playing Field
* Example D — Charlie Rose's Conversation With Ken Auletta: Innovation, Efficiency, and Future Challenges at Google 

This article by Danny Sullivan, Some SEO Advices for Bill Gates, clearly explains the SEO basics and why bloggers need to incorporate SEO into their publishing. 

2. An Idea Collection Process and Writing Schedule Will Increase Your Blogging Frequency
Google rewards websites that frequently update their content.  This is why blogs perform well in search rankings.  Plus, every newly published blog post means another opportunity to index a new page in Google's search engine (which increases your chances of being found in organic searches).  That's why you want to publish posts as frequently as possible. 

When I first started, I struggled to publish a post once per week.  As part of my 2010 New Year's resolution, my weekly goal is two per week.  By focusing on this goal, I've seen an 80% increase in my blog traffic in the past four weeks.  What's been the biggest difference?

A. I started an idea collection process.  I now capture blog ideas in Google Docs, Delicious Bookmarks, or a personal email folder.  I revisit these collection areas on a periodic basis to remind myself of my original intentions or thoughts for future posts.  In the Google Docs file, I usually type out a few bullet points for future reference so I don't forget the idea.  I find this tactic especially helpful if it's an idea I that may be one of my next four (4) posts.

B. I follow a writing and publication schedule.  To hit the twice per week target, I start writing initial drafts on specific evenings or mornings.  When published, the post might not necessarily be perfect and I've learned to revise later.  And, that's a huge luxury blogs provide over other publishing mediums. 

Here's some of the best advice I've read for improving writing habits and increasing blog post frequency:

* Chris Brogan on How To Blog Almost Every Day
* Chris Brogan on 27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community
* Darren Rowse on Your First Week of Blogging — Plan Your Future Blog Posts 

What works for you so your blogs are found in Google searches?  What do you do to post more frequently? 

Please let me know.  I would love to learn from your experiences!

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The Fortune 500 Favors Twitter and Blogs as Social Media Channels

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Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D. and Eric Mattson through the Center for Marketing Research at The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently published a study titled, The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America's Largest Corporations.  I've reviewed the study, and it contains many findings worth sharing about the 2009 Fortune 500's use of social media:

I. 22% of the Fortune 500 have a Public-Facing Blog
* Represents 108 companies
* Shows a 6% growth relative to 2008 (81 companies)
* Firms in computer software, peripherals, and office equipment had the most blogs in 2009 (e.g., 11 companies) and included firms like H-P, Dell, Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, and Xerox
* Blogging almost doubled in the specialty retail category (i.e., Home Depot, Best Buy, Toys "R" Us) from 4 blogs in 2008 to 7 in 2009

II. The Inc. 500 has Adopted Blogging 2x Faster than the Fortune 500
* 45% of The Inc. 500 have a blog.  This is not surprising since the Inc. 500 represents entrepreneurial, fast-growing, private companies in the US
* The Inc. 500 doesn't have marketing budgets to support costly media campaigns (i.e., Super Bowl ads, regular television campaigns)
* The study points out that the difference may be due to "corporate philosophy regarding open communication with its stakeholders."  I think there's a lot of truth to this point because the larger, established companies are concerned with "losing control" of their corporate message.

III. 35% of the Fortune 500 Use Twitter
* Represents 173 companies; The authors noted the growth of Twitter as "explosive"
* The insurance industry had the most Twitter accounts in 2009 (e.g., 13 companies); I find this very interesting and will have to do some self-research on how this industry is using Twitter
* The researchers deemed Twitter interactivity as having "consistent interactions with other users and on-going discussions that are easy to follow"
* A measure of the interactivity — 69% of the companies consistently responded with @replies or retweets (i.e., RTs) in the past 30 days

IV. The Fortune 500 are Integrating Other Social Media with Their Blogs
* 86% of the corporate blogs are linked to a corporate Twitter account
* 19% incorporate podcasts; 31% use video on their blog sites
* This usage represents increases in comparison to 2008 (i.e., 16% for podcasting and 21% for video)
* Shows an attempt to integrate different social media efforts

Conclusions — The Positive
* Shows there is a continued and steady adoption of social media by the largest US corporations
* The Fortune 500 participating in social media is a big step because these organizations achieved their success through traditional "outbound marketing" such as traditional print and television advertising campaigns (with maybe the exception of Google)

Conclusions — Lots of Room for Improvement
* There is still a long way to go – the other way to interpret the data is that 78% of the Fortune 500 do not blog and 65% do not use Twitter
* This blog post by Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross titled The Fortune 500 and Social Media presents a similar view of this conclusion and a review of the same study

Additional and Related Resources
* A previous blog post titled: 5 Insights from Hubspot's The State of Inbound Marketing 2010 Webinar

* HubSpot's State of Inbound Marketing 2010 Report (in PDF)

* Hubspot's Webinar Slides on State of Inbound Marketing 2010:  I've embedded them here

The State of Inbound Marketing 2010

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5 Insights from HubSpot’s The State of Inbound Marketing 2010 Webinar

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Number 5 

HubSpot conducted a webinar on February 18th titled: The State of Inbound Marketing 2010. The webinar focused on key trends in inbound and outbound marketing uncovered from a survey HubSpot conducted in early 2010.  Hubspot's analysis reveals many insights on how businesses are using inbound marketing to reinvent and improve their marketing strategies. This is great content so I've posted the slides in case you didn't have the opportunity to attend the webinar.

The State of Inbound Marketing 2010

Mike Volpe (VP Marketing @HubSpot) and Adam Blake (MIT-Sloan MBA Student) presented many thoughtful insights.  Here are some golden nuggets that really hit home:

Insight 1 – Cost Per Lead for Inbound Marketing Channels is Significantly Lower Versus Outbound Marketing Channels
(Slide 5) Inbound marketing channels (i.e., social media, blogs, SEO – organic / natural search, PPC – paid search / Adwords) cost per lead averaged around $134.  Outbound marketing channels (i.e., telemarketing, trade shows, direct mail) cost per lead averaged around $332 per lead.  Thus, inbound marketing lowered costs per lead by 60%.

Insight 2 – Almost All Inbound Marketing Channels Generate Lower Costs Compared to Any Outbound Channel
(Slides 6, 7) 63% rated social media and blogs as "below average cost" for generating leads.  43% rated SEO as "below average cost."  In addition, these three inbound marketing channels performed better than all outbound marketing channels.  In slide 7, Mike observed that the outbound channel 2010 results for "below average cost" were better than 2009 for all categories.  He noted customers are probably negotiating better terms due to current economic conditions (e.g., a short-term benefit).

Insight 3 - Social Media is One Component of a Healthy Inbound Marketing Mix
(Slide 8) The lesson here: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.  Although respondents rated social media as their most important source of leads, SEO and blogs rated second and third respectively.  In fact, SEO was rated only 1% lower than social media (i.e., 59% to 60%). 

Successful Google results via organic search will continue to be important.  The eMarketer article, Organic Search Still Reigns, reinforces why landing on the first page results of Google, Yahoo!, and Bing is huge.  The rationale: 95% of search-referred traffic comes from first-page results.  Less than 2% of search-referred traffic comes from visitors willing to keep looking after the second page of results.

Insight 4 - Blog Post Frequency Significantly Impacts Customer Acquisition
(Slides 16, 17) Most respondents said they blog primarily once per week.  However, the firms most successful at customer acquisition were those who blogged more (i.e., two to three times per week, daily, multiple times per day). 
Mike and Adam think this is a result of gaining more experience in blogging.  When a firm blogs more frequently, it gets better at writing.  This yields better content which attracts more site traffic (and firms begin investing more time in their company blog).  When HubSpot was a smaller firm, Mike noted it blogged once per week.  When the firm started growing, their blogging frequency increased and they now create blog posts on a daily basis.

Insight 5 - Smaller Companies Implement Inbound Marketing (Larger Firms Not So Much)
(Slide 13) 44% of smaller firms utilize inbound marketing (versus 32% for larger firms).  Mike and Adam cited how smaller firms have more limited marketing budgets (i.e., many are start-ups).  In addition, the larger firms are more established, and they probably achieved their status through outbound marketing.
Insight #5 doesn't surprise me.  It makes sense why smaller firms would look to blogging, social media, and organic search as natural marketing vehicles.  The biggest expense is the investment and prioritization of time to inbound activities.  For the larger firms, I think they look at inbound marketing as additional channels to augment traditional marketing activity.
Check out this blog post: The Fortune 500 and Social Media by Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross from reputationXchange.com.  It provides some great statistics and data on social media adoption (or lack therof) by the largest US corporations.
What do you think of these findings?  Do these results surprise you?  Please comment and let me know what you think.

Photo Credit: By psd via Flickr

 

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Sara Bareilles Taught Me Why I Blog — I Do It for Love …

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* Why do you blog?
* Why do you read blogs and other content to learn more about social media?
* Why do you invest time in tweeting, monitoring conversations, connecting on LinkedIn, sharing stuff on Facebook (and the list goes on and on)?

I'm listening to one of my favorite musical artists, Sara Bareilles, and I had an epiphany during her song, "Bottle It Up," from her passionate live album, Between the Lines: Sara Bareilles Live at The Fillmore.  The opening refrain of this song is "I do it for love. Love. I do it for love …" 

At First, It was Something Else …

J0385540[1] When I first started blogging, a good friend asked me why are you doing this?

Initially, my answer centered around all the commonplace reasons you read from executive search experts and personal branding gurus:

* It's never been more important to establish your individual thought leadership
* If you're not visible online, "you might as well be invisible"
* The Internet is "the great equalizer" in proliferating your expertise and helping you find better professional opportunities
* A resume is not enough to differentiate yourself in an employer "buyer's market" — You Need a Blog!

There's a good bit of truth in those aforementioned reasons.  And in these uncertain economic times, differentiation and fighting for your corporate survival have never been more challenging.  I know this first-hand because I believe/feel like I'm fighting like hell to remain relevant and employed in Corporate America.

… but I Realized that I Do It For Love

J0444783[1]I spent the past week putting together a multiple piece series on what I learned from the very smart and savvy, Tina Brown, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast.  It was during this writing process that I learned something very important. 

There is something incredibly liberating and empowering about blogging.  I'm not a professional blogger by any stretch of the imagination (and I hold zero delusions of grandeur of ever getting paid to do it).  The reasons why I love to blog include:

* Participating in a creative process and creating "something from nothing"
* Experiencing the freedom and autonomy of complete editorial control
* Seeing that other people actually read what you publish (thank you Google Analytics)
* And most of all, learning from simple trial and error

Yup, I do it for love.  It isn't sexy, but it's the truth. 

Fellow bloggers, if you've taken the time to read this post, please let me know your thoughts.  Thank you for reading if you made it this far.

P.S. Sara Bareilles is performing in New York City on October 26th at Feinsteins @Lowes Regency according to her tour schedule.  I wish my wife and I could be there …

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5 Tactics for Optimizing Your Online Visibility in Google Search Results

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Thinking Digital According to the Bloomberg article, Microsoft has Herculean Task in Taking on Google, Americans conducted 65% of their online searches using Google in May 2009. Bing, Microsoft's latest competitive offering, is making some headway and apparently caught the eye of Google co-founder, Sergey Brin (click here for the June 14, 2009 Mashable article). Bing's potential competitive threat benefits all online users because Google will continue improving its core business. This August 10, 2009 Mashable article discusses how Google's engineering team is upgrading the speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness of Google Search. The project is still in beta mode and is code named, Caffeine. In the foreseeable future, Google's online search dominance will continue so understanding its influence and impact on your online visibility is critically important.

Various reputable news sources report signs of an improving U.S. economy, but I'll believe the economic turnaround when I see it. Unfortunately, Corporate America is still conducting layoffs. Therefore, high online visibility to potential networking connections, corporate recruiters, or employers is vitally important. Whenever any of these three contact points researches "your name" on Google, you want to dominate the first and second page search results. If you don't own the majority of the Top 20 Google results, you may as well be invisible.

To boost your online visibility, I suggest the following five tactics. Each tactic is worth your time and effort. Remember that perfection and technical expertise are not a requirement — Just Get Started! The most important critical success factors are your commitment and persistence.

  • Start a Blog
  • Create a Google Profile
  • Participate in the Big Three Social Networking Sites: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
  • Post Comments on Other Blogs
  • Register with Frequently Updated Profile Sites (i.e., MyBlogLog, FriendFeed)

Tactic #1: Start a Blog
Blogs rank high in Google search results so this tactic cannot be emphasized enough. The Google algorithm rewards websites with frequently updated content. High ranking blogs are routinely updated on an hourly and daily basis. As a result, blogs garner a distinct advantage in the search engine results pages game (e.g., SERPs). This advantage is exactly why businesses and individuals should implement blogging as the foundation of an online marketing strategy.

For an easy-to-understand primer on how to create and maintain a blog, I highly recommend Dan Schawbel's eBook, Blogging Your Brand: A Complete Guide to Your Success. This well-structured reference literally walks you through a step-by-step process that's accessible to both Beginner and Expert bloggers.

Tactic #2: Create a Google Profile
One of the quickest and easiest ways to achieve a front-page Google search engine result is by creating a Google Profile. Google introduced this service in Spring 2009. For individuals completing a Google Profile, their name and profile is shown as Google search engine result #10 (in a search for that person's name). The Google Profile launch received a lot of press during this time which triggered a "land grab" for individual names. Still, this shouldn't discourage you from filling out an individual profile.

Another important reason for completing a Google Profile is you can use the customized URL created for your Google Profile as a "virtual business card" when posting your comments on other blogs. When you post a blog comment, you want the blog author and other respective commenters to "see who you are." Until I got my blog up and running, I relied on my Google Profile for posting blog comments or other instances when I required a personal web site URL.

If you need more information about Google Profiles, here are some helpful online resources:

Tactic #3: Participate in the Big Three Social Networking Sites: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
On June 18, 2009, eMarketer published the article, Facebook Overtakes MySpace. The statistics confirmed Facebook's supremacy as the top social networking site. Additional data I found interesting included how Twitter experienced explosive growth of ~2,700% and LinkedIn grew by 90%. MySpace still ranks as the second largest social networking site, but its traffic and membership are steadily declining. Profiles from these sites rank high in Google Search, but I recommend focusing on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (especially if you're a social networking newbie). To maximize your online visibility, make sure you consistently employ your real name as your profile username (i.e., www.twitter.com/yourfirstnameyourlastname or www.twitter.com/tonyfaustino or www.facebook.com/tonyfaustino).

Tactic #4: Post Comments on Other Blogs
Commenting on other blogs provides an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge in a particular subject or industry. In the online world, commenting on another person's blog is the equivalent of attending a face-to-face networking event. Take advantage of this opportunity to make a great impression! Your comments also give Google another means of indexing your name. By consistently posting blog comments, you'll compile a critical mass over time. As a result, Google will display these comments in future search results related to your name.

Also, register with BackType.com so you can maintain an online record of all of your blog comments. You never know when those comments might come in handy for a future blog post.

Tactic #5: Register with Frequently Updated Profile Sites (i.e., MyBlogLog, FriendFeed)
Member profiles in social networks like MyBlogLog.com and FriendFeed rank high in Google Searches because their content is frequently updated. These sites aggregate your activity or updates in other social networking sites such as Twitter or Delicious.com. Therefore, every time you send out a tweet or bookmark an article or website, the activity is automatically recorded as "an information stream." These "information streams" are searchable, indexed, and provide a great opportunity displaying your name in the Top 20 Google Search results.

Photo Credit: By Karl Schneider via Flickr