On Words and Business

Six great posts about business from this past year, in no particular order:

5 Things to Do Every Day for Success

Steve Jobs and the Seven Rules of Success

I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore

Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012

Marketing to Nobody

Content Marketing Tips from 5 People Who Know

If you don’t have a blog or you aren’t sure of the value of your current blog, you may ask yourself this question on a regular basis.

Taking the time to share thoughts and ideas on a regular basis takes time. Here are three good reasons to start a blog:

1. It establishes you and/or your company as an expert. If you know enough to write about something on a regular basis, there’s a pretty good chance you actually know what you’re talking about. And being an expert is something customers like.
2. The content can be repurposed for other materials in your marketing arsenal.
3. It generates connections to your website and conversations with your customers and prospects.

If these look valuable to you, then you may want to consider starting or reworking your blog. And, by the way, thinking about how you’ll define success. Number of hits or comments? Incoming links from your blog? Sharing of your posts on other sites? Just the knowledge that you are creating a resource?

Your goal can be whatever you want it to be; just have a goal so you’ll know when you reach it (and know when it’s time to set a new goal). That’s what makes blogging worth it.

How do B2B companies feel about blogging?

Well, only about half in a recent survey by HiveFire said they have a blog; of those who don’t, 82% plan to at some point in the future.

With all the other marketing tasks on the plate, it is a challenge to keep a a blog up to date. A complete program includes an editorial calendar, figuring out who will contribute and how often, getting full participation from contributors and executives, and finding enough new and interesting content to keep it fresh.

If you have a corporate blog, is it working for you?

If you don’t, why not?

Being social and networking are all about making the right connections. So is social media.

So how do you get people to notice you or your company? That’s a great question that many companies struggle with.

Like the six degrees of separation theory, having a social media presence means reaching the people who have lots of followers–the mass influencers–and tapping into their energy. Forrester talks about how to engage the mass influencers with the use of feedback. In this case, the story is about a site where reviews are posted and it makes sense. But does the idea work for different types of content?

Think about reaching out to anyone who comments on a blog post, separate from the blog; contacting them when you post something you think they will especially like or be able to respond to and asking for feedback. Contests to get people talking about your site.

What other ideas are out there for reaching mass influencers?

What is it with the Aussies? I’ve never been to Australia, yet I find myself time and again drawn to the thoughts of Aussie business people via their blogs or websites.

From this distance (it’s approximately 10,100 miles or 16,200 kilometers from Boston to Sydney) it seems to be a place of immensity and extremes. Luckily for us, it also seems to be a country that fosters business and sharing.

Stretch yourself with this new blog from the land of the golden wattle, the emu, and the walkabout.

Want to create a social media policy but don’t know how? Want to make sure your existing policy passes muster?

Check out Social Media Governance, a website with over 100 policies from companies like the BBC, FedEx, and Sun Microsystems. In addition, there are links to over 100 research reports about social media policy, some of them free.

A great resource.