Most people will either love social media or hate it – with the odd few thrown in who simply don’t ‘get it’.

But the problem is for those who hate or don’t ‘get it’, social media is here to stay and it will continue to grow. We’ve already seen Google join the party with Google+ so your days of keeping it at arms length are numbered.

It’s time to join in.

Personally I love it. Working as a freelance copywriter it has helped me not only gain new clients but its also enabled me to meet great people, boost my online exposure and find people to help me in my hour of need.

If you think to be effective you have to sit on Twitter or Facebook all day, you don’t. Having said that, an occasional look in when you feel like it won’t help either. You must have a regular presence but that doesn’t mean it has to rule your life.

What social media is all about

Have you ever been guilty of saying:

“I can’t see the point of Twitter”

“Why do I want to know what a complete stranger’s had for lunch?”

“It’s not as if anyone reads that stuff anyway.”

“None of my customers use it so why should I?”

The strange thing is, people view social media as some sort of ‘new age’ passing fad and yet it’s just traditional networking that is carried out online. It makes people more accessible so you can actually get to speak with those people who normally hide behind a wall of stern secretaries.

It’s a social activity so it’s just about chatting, building relationships and being interested in other people – just like face to face networking. The only difference is you don’t have to get into your car and drive to an event (which in itself is a God send considering the price of petrol these days).

What’s there not to get?

If you’re an avid face to face networker all you have to do is transfer those skills to the online community. You already know that a sales pitch never goes down well at networking events so you’ll know that’s not how to conduct yourself on social media either.

Build a strategy

Just as with traditional networking, you won’t get results overnight. You have to devise a long term strategy that’s right for your business.

If you decide to blog you’ll need a plan, lots of ideas and a blogging schedule. When you start to tweet you must build time into your day and make it part of your routine if you want it to be effective.

Becoming part of the growing online community is a great way of getting your business known. Be generous with your information, have conversations, ask and answer questions – by participating and engaging you will draw people to you and start to see results.

Over to you

Have you started using social media? If so leave a comment and tell us how you’re getting on.

Perhaps you’re still resisting – what’s stopping you from joining in?

Leave a comment below and let’s start a conversation.

In the good old days customers would communicate with you via letter, phone or in person. Today things are very different. Now they can send you a tweet, post a comment on your blog or leave you a message on Facebook.

In the past if someone was unhappy with your service the ‘bad press’ was usually limited to a few of their friends and family (unless it was seriously bad service and the wrote to the Editor of your local paper). Now a single tweet or Facebook message could potentially be seen by millions.

Now, more than ever, you must have procedures in place to deal with social media communications. You have to think about how you will monitor them, how you will respond to both positive and negative comments and how you’ll interact with your audience.

Enhancing your online reputation is essential in todays transparent culture. Here are 3 easy things you can do to make sure your company holds its head up high and shines.

1. Thank you

Manners cost nothing and a simple ‘thank you’ can be a very powerful tool.

When a follower retweets you, leaves a comment on your blog or sends a referral to you, thank them. It doesn’t take a lot of effort and shows that you are listening and that you care about your customers. And in the eyes of your customers, that translates into the image of a company they want to do business with. 

But you don’t just have to keep an eye on your social media platforms. There are many other ways you can be talked about online so it’s important to monitor the internet to find out what’s being said. There are a number of tools out there such as Google Alerts which will email Google results based on your query or topic:

Or Social Mention which works in a similar way but searches social media channels:

Using these tools will help you keep track of what people are saying about you online so you can see how your brand is perceived and, as a customer service tool, enables you to solve issues quickly before they get out of hand.  

2. Blogging

Loads of people blog so that should tell you its a valuable tool to use within your business.

Not only does it allow you to own more of the web, it also is a great way to add value to your customer relationships because you can offer them tips and advice that will make their lives easier. Plus it will help position you as an expert in your field which is always good.

But the trick is to ensure you write stuff your readers want to learn about. If you are a building firm and blog about holidays, you’re not going to be adding value. But if you wrote about important issues in your trade, design ideas etc., you would create a connection with your readers and inspire them to make the most of their homes.

Take this blog for example, as a freelance copywriter I not only write about copywriting but also general marketing issues, social media, brochure copy etc., which are all topics business owners find useful. Therefore not only do I get traffic to my website, the people that come also find the experience useful.  

3. Focus on benefits

Whenever you write about your products or services, always focus on your customer; why they will benefit from it. By writing for them you are showing that you understand what’s important to them and want to help them achieve that.

Showing that kind of connection will identify you as a company that cares about its customers and not just its profits. And let’s face it, you tend to buy from people you like and trust. So if you come across as arrogant people aren’t going to buy from you.

When marketing your business it’s all too easy to get wrapped up in it and lose sight of what’s really important – your customers.

Make sure they are at the forefront of everything you do because without them you don’t have a business.  

Interact with them, thank them and go out of your way to make sure they are happy. Use social media to your advantage.

You’ve heard it time and time again that blogging will help your business’s online exposure.

You’ve probably got your blog set up ready to go but there’s a question lurking in the back of your mind…

How do I start blogging?

If you’ve got this far you’ve probably already answered the question “why do I want to blog?” Just in case you haven’t, you need to think about it carefully.

A blog is an online platform from which  you can give your opinion and offer tips and advice. It will add value to your customers and provide a rich source of back links for your website.

If your answer was “because everyone else is doing it”, forget it. Blogging takes stamina – it’s not something you can do every now and then. If you want it to be effective you have to blog regularly – and that means at least weekly.

To illustrate this point you may be interested in a post that I came across on socialmediaexaminer.com outlining The 5 Pillars of Business Blogging Success which shows that blogging is about far more than writing random posts and sending them out into cyberspace.

In essence you must:

1. Plan  - define your target audience and write for them using your chosen keywords. Decide why you’re blogging and what you want to achieve from it. 

2. Content -  write your posts in simple language (no jargon). Make them interesting and relevant to your audience and pay attention to your headings to make sure they’re eye-catching.

3. Design – looking at the bigger picture, the design of your blog should be attractive and make people want to hang around. Make sure it’s clean and uncluttered.

4. Marketing – if you want people to read your blog you have to tell them it’s there. Promote your post through social media and get an RSS feed showing the latest posts of your website.

5. Engage – write to your reader (use the second person). This makes it personal to them as though you are confiding in them.

There’s a lot to think about when blogging.

If you are going to be successful you have to be committed and be able to generate a constant stream of valuable information.

Not only will it benefit your customers by giving them advice and tips it will also help your SEO strategy by building links to your main website.

Have you had success blogging? If so leave a comment and share your experiences.

Getting someone to find your website is one thing. Encouraging them to read your content while they are there is something entirely different.

If you market your business online you probably spend hours producing content that is designed to promote you and your business and build links.

To target your audience you would have done a mountain of research to come up with a list of topics for your blog posts, articles and website copy.

Once you’ve uploaded your fantastic value-laden information and hit publish…

…absolutely nothing happens.

No matter how often you check there are no tweets (not even a re-tweet), no comments, no nothing.

Your immediate reaction is probably “Argh! My writing must really suck.”

But don’t despair – your style of writing is probably fine. It is more likely that the structure of your articles and blogs is leaving your readers bemused.

When writing for the web the best thing you can do is forget everything your dear old English teacher taught you.

You need to spend less time writing and more time thinking about how you structure your work.

Writing online

When reading from the web people tend to scan read rather than read every word.That’s because they are searching for information and if they can’t find it quickly, they’ll move on to another website.

So if you want to keep them engaged you have to rethink your writing style.

1. Snappy

The length of your writing should be just long enough to cover what you want to say without waffling.

If you’re writing about a very complex issue it may be worth breaking it down into several posts. Not only will that make it much easier for your reader to follow, it will also encourage them to come again for your subsequent posts.

Plus start at the end – with your conclusion. That might sound odd by that way you are immediately giving your readers what they want. The all you have to do is provide supporting evidence point by point.

2. White space

If your text is in one long wall of text or several long paragraphs it won’t look very inviting.

Lighten it by increasing the amount of white space on your page. Break it down into small paragraphs (no more than 3 or 4 sentences each). Or you could go really mad and use a single sentence paragraph.

3. Sub headings

Inserting informative sub headings between your paragraphs will help your reader get the gist of your post while they are scanning the page.

4. Bullets

• Using bullet points creates interest
• Highlights important points
• Are instantly scan-able
• Draw the reader’s eye as they break up the rest of the text

5. Links

By all means link to your own website through your posts but don’t forget external information sources too. This will show your reader that your information is well considered (and it may also generate a link from your source too).

6. Bold

Use bold text to pick out important concepts within your post. These, coupled with the sub headings, should help your reader fully understand the topic you are covering and whether it will be of interest to them.

7. Numbers

Some people have said that the days of the numbered posts—such as “8 Top Tips to Improve Your Copywriting” are gone. But reader’s still love them.

8. Check and check again

Before publishing read through your work to make sure it makes sense, This will also check for rhythm, typos and other errors.

Writing informative posts is one thing but if you want people to read them they must be presented in a way that:

• Gets your concept over immediately
• Looks attractive and readable
• Gets to the point

STOP – LOOK – LISTEN

Those three words were probably drilled into you when you were a child.

You would also do well to remember them when copywriting.

That might seem a strange thing to say but when creating sales and marketing content, many people just dive straight in. That’s because it’s usually one of those jobs that is squeezed in between other projects.

And there’s the problem – content creation shouldn’t be seen as one of those jobs you have to fit in now and then. It’s vital for your business from an SEO perspective and for getting your message out to your audience effectively.

Stop

Before you start to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard, stop and think about what you are doing and why. Every piece of copy must have a purpose so ask yourself:

• What is going to be the best platform for your message?
• What do you want to achieve from your copy?
• How do you want your audience to react?
• What do you want to tell your audience?
• What end result do you want to achieve?

Creating content is like creating a new product. You wouldn’t dream of making a new product without carrying out R&D first, so why just sit down and cobble together some half hearted sales copy?

Look

Although your content is important, so too is how it looks.

If it doesn’t have instant readability appeal, no one will read it. In which case there wasn’t a lot of point in writing it in the first place.

Using headings, subheadings, bullet points and images will make your content more attractive and accessible. A solid wall of text is a real turn off but a page with plenty of white space, bullet points and small chunks of text, is a far more interesting prospect.

Listen

You not only have to listen to the needs of your business and customers, you also need to listen to yourself.

Your content has to tell your reader what’s in it for them and represent the voice of your business.

Once you’ve written your content, read it out loud. This will help you make sure it flows, makes sense and will provoke an emotional response in your reader.

As you can see, content creation is much more than just stringing a few sentences together. A lot of thought, planning and shaping has to go into every piece of content you produce.

So remember - stop, look and listen before you publish.

Are you a serial blogger?

You know, the type of person who churns out a post, forgets about it and then churns out the next.

The content you produce for your blog is very valuable so you must make the most of it. Unlike other forms of communication, a blog post won’t disappear or be used as tomorrow’s chip wrapper.

Once you’ve hit ‘publish’ it’s up to you to make the most of that content and keep it alive.

If you want a long shelf life on everything you post, follow these 6 simple steps.

1.  Follow up

The world is constantly changing so your original blog post may need updating at some point.

Rather than going back to it and adding new information, write a follow up post and link it back to your original one. This will help drive traffic to your existing content as well as add value to your reader by updating them on new ways of thinking.

2. Internal links

If possible, relate new posts to old ones by linking to them, especially if they are linked by subject or (as in the case of number 1) are providing extra/updated information.

3. Re-Tweet

Twitter and blogging go hand in hand. It’s a great way to promote your content to a wider audience and a way your readers can spread the word for you by re-tweeting it.

Plus, you can always breathe life into past posts by tweeting them from your archives, especially if their content is relevant to something happening in the news.

4. Repurpose content

As you’ve spent time creating the content in the first place, why not reuse it? Spinning it into an article will help get your name out there as an authority on your topic. Plus using keyword rich links back to your website will help your SEO strategy.

5. Optimise

SEO isn’t just for your web copy. By targeting specific keywords within your blog posts you can drive targeted traffic to your blog. Choose well and your blog post could remain a prominent fixture in the search engine results for a long time.

6. Newsletters

Companies that send out monthly newsletters often find it difficult to come up with content. Well, if you blog, why not use some of your posts as the basis for news and information?

All you have to do is use a snippet of the text and add a ‘read more’ link to take your reader to the original post. This is a great way to pass on valuable information and boost your blog’s readership.

Blogging generates great and valuable content so make the most of it.

Do you have any other ways of making the most of your blog posts? If so leave a comment and share your ideas with us.

Are you looking for some blogging advice?

Be yourself.

The mistake many people make when starting their blog is they try and emulate their blogging heroes. There’s nothing wrong with turning to them for inspiration but your blog should be a reflection of you and not a poor imitation of one of the blogging greats.

Your blog is your opportunity to publish your thoughts and opinions and share information with others.  

Moving from novice to expert

Making the transition from a novice blogger to an expert is a gradual one. It’s not something that will happen over night but here are 4 simple things to remember which will help you reach expert status.

1. Be unique

By being yourself and not trying to copy someone else’s style, you’ll be offering something unique. There’s only one you so use your individuality to your advantage.

There’s nothing wrong with reading other blogs to see what people are saying and to get inspiration but make sure your posts reflect you. That way your readers will get to know you.

2. Be regular

That doesn’t mean you should dash out and stock up on prunes. As your blog readership grows your audience will get to know when you post – so find a frequency that works for you and stick to it. 

And don’t forget that if your readers take the time to leave a comment on your blog (that’s not spam) respond to it. Even a simple ‘thank you for your comment’ shows that you care and enjoy interacting with your readers. .

3. Be personal

Letting your personality shine through your writing will help you connect with your readers. If you’re writing about something that’s happening in your industry include your opinion or relate it to something that’s happened to you. 

Make sure you don’t post in haste. At times people will wind you up but it you immediately write an emotional post in response you may regret it. Always think before you publish.

4. Be attractive

It’s the content of your posts that will connect with your readers but your blog still has to look inviting. With a vast array of free templates out there, there’s bound to be one that suits you. But try and keep it simple and unfussy – less is most definitely more.

Blogging is a great way to engage with people, voice your opinions and share information. I’ve been blogging for 3 or 4 years. It has helped me develop as a writer, put me in touch with some amazing people and it’s proven to be a valuable part of my search engine optimisation strategy for my business as a copywriter.

What are you waiting for? Start your blog today by using a platform such as Word Press or Blogger and start writing.

Blogging is an excellent way to boost your business’s online presence.

Yes it takes time but, believe me, it really does work. I’m a copywriter and have been blogging for several years now and it has really helped be cement my position within the Google rankings.

Blogging means you are constantly putting fresh content out onto the web. This constant content feeding generates traffic which is vital for your search engine optimisation strategy.

As you know SEO is all about getting found on the web for your chosen keywords. So by writing your blogs in line with your SEO strategy (i.e. using the keywords you want to be found for), you’ll attract readers and as a result, visitors to your website.

To help you get the most out of your blog posts and their SEO potential I have put together the following 5 tips.

1. Quality content

People want quality. They want to spend their time reading something interesting, informative and helpful. By adding value to them in this way, you’ll strengthen your relationship with them . That will keep them coming back for more and help build those very important back links.

2. Keywords

Of course great quality content is useless if you’re not targeting the right audience. Once you’ve written your post, read it and think about what terms your reader would use to search for it. The primary keywords tend to be quite obvious, but other terms are not so clear-cut.

There are various tools you can use to identify your keywords such as Google’s keyword tool. To find associated words, tools such as the Google Tilde search are useful but there is also another more visual tool you can use.

Try Google Wheel. When you’ve entered your search term into the Google search box, if you look to the left of your screen you’ll see Wonder Wheel.

If you click on this it will produce a wheel diagram with your main search term in the centre (in this case ‘dog training’) with associated terms around it:

You can then click on any other outer terms to receive further results:

3. META Titles and descriptions

The META title and description are there to tell both the reader and search engine spiders what your posts is about. If you use the WordPress.com platform for your blog you can use the All in one SEO Pack to specify these fields.

When writing your titles and descriptions make sure your keywords are near the beginning. There is also a character limit for each (Titles – 72, Description – 165) so you’ll have to carefully plan your words.

4. Links

Both internal and external links are important when writing your posts. Your internal links (utilising related keywords) link out to other posts, while external links take the reader to other related websites. In both cases make sure you use keyword rich links rather than something like ‘click here’ which has no value.

Your external links can also be used to encourage inbound links from other websites as ‘trackbacks’ inform that web owner you have linked to  them. Therefore they may in turn link to your posts.

5. URL

The last item on my list is your URL. This I the web address used to link to your post. Make sure you use your keywords within this as it will instantly show the relevance of your post.

Make sure it is meaningful.

By utilising each of these techniques and tools, you will produce meaningful, interesting blog posts that will be found through the search engines. Not only that, but by ensuring you create quality content you will attract links and build your reputation as an expert in your field.

Blogging is an excellent way of getting your voice heard.

What is content marketing?

It’s all about building your reputation as an expert online. That doesn’t mean posting loads of mediocre articles and blogs in the vain hope that someone will read them. Content marketing is about providing quality, informative and interesting information that will add value to your readers.

The 3 elements of content marketing

If you want to excel at content marketing there are 3 things you have to do:

• Create content that sells you
• Write content that’s optimised for the search engines to increase its longevity
• Repurpose your content and spread the word

Are you sitting there thinking – “What’s the point? It’s not as is anyone reads stuff like that anyway.”

If you think like that you’ll never get anywhere. Instead you have to think of your content as a huge loud speaker that will tell  the world how great you are, what an expert you are and that what you have to say is worth reading.

Once people start to see your content plastered all over the web they’ll think of you as a market leader, a giver of great information and will be more inclined to give you a call or drop you an email when they need your services.

In a nutshell - Content generation means you’ll get found

So what is content?

It can be anything: white papers, reports, articles, blogs, videos, FAQs, audio etc.

Creating content in a variety of forms will make sure you appeal to a lot of different audiences. Not everyone likes to get their information through reading, some prefer to listen or to watch – offering a range of formats will provide something for everyone.

Making your content great

1. Should it be promotional?

Nope – be subtle. If you are obviously selling something it’s going to come across as an advert rather than advice. Offering information positions you as an expert who is open and approachable. 

2. Be relevant

Make sure you know what your reader wants and give it to them.

3. Well-written

Engaging, well-written, interesting – get those 3 things right and you’re practically there. 

4. Relevant to your company

For arguments sake, let’s say you’re a copywriter. If you suddenly start writing about the latest engineering practices your audience is going to be left wandering what on earth’s going on. Make sure you write on topic within the realms of your expertise.

5. Shout about it

If you’re going to spend time creating content you have to promote it. Use everything you can — social media, PR, search engine optimisation. That way you’ll make it stand out so your audience can find it.

At the end of the day, if you want your content marketing to work make sure you:

• Write regularly
• Write well
• Write relevant material
• Promote it.

The power of a blog is a wonderful thing.

It gives you the opportunity to get your personal view of things out there in the open where others can read them.

You can share tips and advice. Engage your worldwide audience and share your knowledge to position yourself as an expert in your field.

You can create a buzz and a following that gets your name and your business noticed by potentially thousands of people.

Of course there is one downside that puts many people off:

A blog is for life, not just for Christmas

If you want to make an impact with your blog you have to be dedicated, blog regularly and come up with an endless stream of content.

Dedication

A good blogger is a dedicated blogger.

They live to engage with their readers and provide them with an endless stream of quality content.

Their posts generate debate and a following. Sounds impossible but you too can achieve this through regular blogging. Posts that are relevant and interesting to your audience will get you noticed. People will come back to your blog time and time again and share it with others through social media.

Adding value

Regular blogging is all well and good but only if it adds value which means you must generate great ideas.

Inspiration for topics can strike anytime so make sure you always have pen and paper close by so you can write down your ideas when they strike.

Be useful

Long posts, short posts. Each topic and your own preference/writing style will dictate here. But if you keep your posts relatively brief, the information is more likely to be easily absorbed and will get them to come back for more.

Mix it up

People absorb information in different ways.

Some like to read, others prefer to listen and some like to watch videos. Offering a range of posts that use all these methods will widen the appeal of your blog.

What it comes down to is this – if you want to build a blog that draws in readers you have to write regularly, well, with variety but always it has to have interesting content.

Blogging really can help your business – it doesn’t matter if you’re a copywriter, a plumber, a solicitor or an accountant – a well written blog can help you by positioning yourself as an expert in your field.