getting started in social media (3)

Posts Tagged ‘getting started in social media’

Small Amounts Of Better

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

I like progress.

Thinking about ways to move projects forward will keep me occupied for hours. I also like systems, and putting them into action.

So I really enjoyed a post from last summer (remember summer?) on Tim Ferriss’s blog by guest blogger Chad Fowler.

Chad discusses productivity in terms of incremental improvement, placing emphasis on the increments. he asks, “Are you better than yesterday?”

This question is central to most digital marketing efforts. It embraces the idea that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. And most businesses have yet to take that step.

Content marketing, where you’re writing and participating online in your field, isn’t static. It’s a process. One that’s remarkably like being a magazine editor. If you think about your marketing in those terms, you can start to measure small amounts of progress, which has a motivating effect on production.

For instance, if your goal is to write at least four blog posts every week, that’s a pretty daunting task for someone that 1) has never written a real live public blog, and 2) already has a full list of things to do at work.

If you compare your output not to how close you are to the end goal, but to weather you’ve done better than yesterday, it’s going to make your new job as a publisher more manageable.

It’s also going to make your progress more measurable. If you have a huge project on your radar, like auditing, restructuring, and rewriting all of the content on your site, it’s going to be tough to look at that little red line moving toward the finished product.

If you start with zero new content, and audit just one branch of the site, well, that’s huge gains from the progress you had yesterday.

It’s perception, sure. But in a lot of ways, perception is reality.

If perception is enough to get you motivated to work on your digital marketing strategy, great. It’s a smart way to make progress. Create small amounts of better, everyday.

Tags: content, content marketing, Digital Marketing, getting started in social media
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

5 Interesting Uses For Twitter

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

“My cat is eating pancakes” doesn’t count.

I like it when people take something and make it another thing. Call it hacking, if you want. I think the word has some bad connotations on it, though, that scare non-tech types into shying away from the digital space.

Either way, there are people that haven taken this tool, Twitter, and made it into something more. Which, in a way, is the story of the company. So it fits.

As marketers, we should always be thinking of new ways to communicate that are interesting and helpful. Especially when we’re given a great new avenue like Twitter.

Here are five interesting uses for Twitter.

1. Twitter as Talent Scout Literary agents (hip ones, anyway) are using Twitter to find hidden writing talent. I guess if you can say it in 140 characters, you’d kill it in book form.

2. Twitter as Note Pad Say you have an idea. You want to share the idea, but you don’t have time. You need something- a notepad- to write it down. Only you don’t carry a notepad. You carry an iphone.

3. Twitter as Fan Fiction If you’ve ever seen a movie or read a book with a character you really like (I mean really like), and you wished that character had more to say, look no further.

4. Twitter as Search Engine Twitter “power users” with tens of thousands of followers can ask a question and get hundreds of quick answers. Well, everyone else can too.

5. Twitter as GPS Knowing your precise location, and using it to find the precise location of everything else, is definitely something new for most people. You’ll still get lost, but now you won’t have to stop to ask for directions.

I think all those things, and the thousands of other stories like them, are really cool. Not just the actual applications or uses, but the ideas that went into making them.

Here’s this thing for wide-range instant messaging. I’m going to make a ______ for that, and people will use it to ________.

My question is, how many people have taken the same tack with their marketing? Here are all these tools. What are we going to make?

Tags: content, Digital Marketing, getting started in social media, marketing mindset
Posted in Digital Marketing | 1 Comment »

Tools for Cranking Out Content

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Well, it’s that time. The work is piling up like the leaves outside. You know what I’m talking about.

So while I’m getting down to business, I wanted to share some of the tools we use to get things done at Matterhorn. Hopefully, there’s something in here that’s new to you, or we’re using it in a way that you haven’t thought of.

For all of our projects, we use 37 Signals’ Basecamp project management system. I don’t think there’s a better way for us to keep tabs on anything and everything you’re doing. It’s easy to use and great for planning. I particularly like how information like events or files can be viewed indiviually by category or together as a timeline of progress.

For social media, there are tons of tools that we use to listen around the internet for conversations that our clients can participate in. Once we identify them, ping.fm is one way to post in several spheres at once. It’s easy to get in “broadcast mode” with a tool like that, which will hurt you when you’re using social media for business, so be careful.

When I write in a word processor, I pretty much have to use MS Word (cutting edge, I know). It’s too bad everyone uses Word- I like Apple’s Pages much, much better. Even though I can export Pages to Word, the stuff that pages excels at, namely the ease of formatting, doesn’t translate sometimes. So rather that deal with the headache, I just use Word. Damn you, Word! Be smarter!

If I’m writing directly to a blog, I’m in WordPress. On the tech side, WP is easy to attach to the sites we build, and has so many bells and whistles, it’s pretty obvious that it’s the one that’s most ready for heavy lifting. On the interface side, I can (mostly) format my posts however I like, and the dials are easy to tweak.

For staying current, I use an RSS reader. There are tons out there, but I use google’s. It’s got just about everything I want, and nothing I don’t, so it suits me. I messed around with using Alltop for a while, but I ended up just sticking with my original digs. There’s talk that Twitter will replace RSS, but meanwhile, I’ll use a reader.

Finally, for instant messaging we use Adium. It recognizes almost every different IM client, so you only have to use one application to talk to almost anyone. Plus, the duck icon will flap his arms around when you have a message :-)

There are tons more (Pat’s icons for SEO tools alone cover the desktops on 3 of his 4 screens); these are the basics, meaning, these are pretty much what I use everyday for the content and client side of things.

Thoughts?

Tags: blogs, content, content marketing, getting started in social media, project management, rss feeds
Posted in Digital Marketing | 3 Comments »

The Secret, Simple Formula For Writing A Blog

Monday, July 13th, 2009

The best blogs are personal. Sorry, but I’ll just tell you right off the bat: there’s no formula for that. Good writing takes a lot of practice. It gets better the more you do it, but you have to put in the miles.

There is, however, a formula for blog structure. Actually, there are (most likely) thousands. What I’ll go over here is just one.

An aside: I love learning. I’m a student of being a student. One thing I’ve found to be true is that there are lots and lots of ways (the process) to get to your goal (the principle). Quite often, the most important part of your project is just choosing one.

O.k. Here’s one way to write a blog (this is what I do):

1) I think of a title. Usually, I’ve got some ideas for subjects, but the first step is to think of how I’ll frame that subject. The way I do that is with a title. If you need help writing titles, Brian Clark has good advice for you.

Also, I keep headlines in a file in Rustybudget. This is a really helpful tool that works in several ways. I can keep a scratch file of topics there. I can keep notes for headlines there. I can plan blog posts according to date, if I have seasonal topics (or for whatever reason, really). And, the feature I like best- I can add a bookmarklet to my browser that sends urls to my rustybudget files outomatically, without having to copy, open, then paste.

2) I have elements that I use every time. This tip comes from Matt Cutts, who’s works on SEO and spam among other things over at Google. The structure is this: 500 words, 5% keyword density, and 5 links.

That’s pretty cut and dried, which is what I like about it. It’s simple. But I also like how it accomplishes two parts of the process: SEO and post structure. I don’t always hit all the categories dead on, but that’s not what they’re for. They’re guidelines, and that’s the best way to use them.

3) I use a prioven, reproducable format. I don’t want to feel like I have to reinvent the wheel everytime I sit down to write a blog post, so I go back to what works. The format is this: Attention grabbing headline, point/conclusion/idea of the blog in the first couple of sentences, small sub-headed or numbered points to expand on the idea.

I got most of the ideas for the format from Ginny Redish, who’s written the most applicable information on writing for the digital space that I’ve come across. A little deeper into style, though, is William Zinnser‘s “On Writing Well”. Even though it was written more than thirty years ago, it’s still my favorite book on how to write.

4- kind of) I sometimes add a picture. I usually have an idea of the kind of image I’d like. But sometimes I have trouble finding something, or sometimes I just skip it, to tell you the truth. But I think people really like to see an image on a blog.

So, that’s what I do. How about you? Let me know if you found this helpful, and feel free to share any of your own process.

Tags: blogs, content, content marketing, getting started in social media
Posted in Content Creation | No Comments »

Why Recycled Content Matters

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Repetition is the key to learning. Everyone knows it. All the academics say it. It’s in all the textbooks (not that that necessarily matters).

But it’s true. Very rarely is an Aha moment due to seeing something for the first time. Much more often, it’s because the information finally broke through. It was presented in a way that was different. Something about the message finally made sense.

When I hear people rail against recycled content on twitter, I think they’ve missed the point. New ideas and methods are important, but they’re built upon foundations and principles that deserve constant reinterpretation.

Why? To connect. New ideas are exciting and they connect people in very specific and highly specialized ways. But they’re built on concepts that everyone can imagine or identify with.

Having an understanding of those concepts allows us all to connect in the arena of new ideas. So what if you’re saying the same thing over? Are you making it sound new? Are you using a new metaphor to describe it?

Another reason why recycling content is important is because teaching makes us better learners. It might be enough to say that, yes, social media is about having conversations, or that good web content follows certain structural guidelines. But does anyone get anything out of that?

If online communication is about sharing ideas, how can you know too much about the common ground? I don’t think that you can. People spend their lives studying the bible, the torah, or the koran- those are the same principles, revisited over and over.

Also, recycling content is the language of inclusion. A lot of message boards become stagnant when the old pros don’t want to discuss what’s on the mind of the young bucks. They’re not willing to recycle content, and the tribe ends up suffering for it.

If you come to this blog regularly, you’ll read about plenty of new information. But you’ll see a lot of the same themes running through it.

Do you think that it matters?

Tags: business relationships, content, content marketing, getting started in social media
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

Connecting People and Generations

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Social media is about connecting and sharing, right? People to People. People to Brands. People to Ideas. People to Content.

We are inundated with messages and info about using social media for marketing. 5 Ways to Tweet. How To Build More FaceFriends. Why You Should Use A Cartoon Avatar.

Sometimes we fail to really dig into the core.

I’d like to share a few ways in which social media has shaped the way in which my family stays connected and shares.

Social Networks

First, let me introduce (or re-introduce, as the case may be) my 99 year old Grandmother, Mary. Our Matriarch. Mother of 8, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother and Great, Great-Grandmother to many. She rode a horse to her fist job- teaching in a one-room school house.

I received an email from her just this morning.

And grandma’s not the only one who’s connected- we all are. Let’s just say we have a large family. We are a close-knit, yet scattered. My generation grew up together at family outings and get-togethers. Climbing trees, whiffle ball, sharing a giant hammock and even getting the chance to catch crawdads from time to time. It’s a great family.

Growing up, we shared laughs and spent a great deal of time together. Now, we’re many miles apart, like a lot of families. We have been using the family social network myfamily.com for a number of years to keep in touch and share: photos of first-birthday caked faces, stories of life events, videos and more.

Micro-Blogging
It’s easy to become tired of micro-blogging when we become innundated with the mundane. However, for every “Going to buy milk” update, there are people sharing something interesting. Stories. Ideas.

A key point of micro-blogging (one that I think some who write it off too early fail to recognize) is that people choose to subscribe (or unscubscribe) to information. If you find it boring, narcissistic, or irrelevant, the un-subscribe button is calling.

Want a great example of micro-blogging (and SMS) connects people? I followed my parents fall-tour of Europe via Twitter.

My father, at Normandy…

Just spent time at the American cemetery where more than 9000 Americans are buried

A number of texts, Tweets, and DM’s ensued during their trip. It was quick, it was easy. A helluva lot easier (and cheaper) than calling.

It connected a number of us together. We were interested in the adventures they were having. In turn, they kept up with us and our kids (and WVU scores!).

The important part is that we stayed connected, though thousands of miles apart, in 140 characters or less.

Video Sharing

Folks like my Grandmother have incredible stories to tell. The Greatest Generation. The Great Depression. War(s) and the peace that followed. Civil Rights.

And she’s staying connected with me. And others. Historical and personal living histories can be shared amongst generations, digitally.

So, is digital storytelling the new oral history? I don’t know, but here’s an instance that might point to the answer:

Recently, my parents picked up one of the HD hand-held cameras that we use with a number of our partners, a Kodak zi6. They had the idea of having my Grandmother share some of her stories so they could post on the family website. I’d like to post them for all the world to enjoy as well. Generational gaps get bridged via a $150 HD camera and an Internet connection. Amazing.

If we’re talking across generations with this stuff, these tools, we should be able to have meaningful conversations about business, right?

How are you bridging gaps, connecting people, and sharing your story?

Tags: business relationships, getting started in social media, Pat Strader
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Why Should I Blog?

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Yesterday I talked with a group of people about writing. Specifically, we were talking about content marketing, and what it means to write a blog.

I got some great tips from the wordpress blog, which is definitely worth checking out if you’re trying to answer this question.

Here are my answers:

To Create Something

With a blog, you can create a good business atmosphere, a helpful presence on the web, or an idea to grow within a community. Creativity is criminally neglected at most businesses, but why? Everyone gets a box of crayons in Kindergarten.

To Be Findable

Blogs allow your business to have a renewed presence, not just on the internet, but on where people look on the internet. The content from your blog positions you (along with a lot of other stuff). It’s the difference between putting up a billboard, and sharing your ideas with a group of people -sometimes a very large group- who are interested in them.

To Communicate

Good blogging establishes you as an expert. Not necessarily in your field, (because your field might be filled with more qualified, better known experts), but on your viewpoint. Blogging is a good way to have your say, on your subject, and find out how others feel about it.

These answers are all processes that serve a common principle: to lead. Good blogs are leaders- sources of knowledge, guidance, and direction.

If you decide to start blogging, and what you make is creative, findable, and communicates your ideas, your blog will share the lead in your field.

Tags: business relationships, content, content marketing, getting started in social media, partnerships, writing
Posted in Content Creation, Copywriting, Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

A Blog About Digital Marketing…

Stay in Touch

Receive Our Email Newsletter

Archives

Categories

Matterhorn Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘getting started in social media’