Independent Thinking » Blogs

The Fastest Way to Shut Down Conversation on Your Blog

Daria Steigman — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:01:41 +0000

Want to know the fastest way to shut down conversation on your blog?

Moderate comments.

(And if you’re going to hold comments, you should at minimum have a process for getting them approved quickly.)

Case in point: I followed a link to a terrific blog post the other day. Good information, well-written, and well presented. I left a comment, and then tweeted out the link to my community.

What happened next? Nothing.

“Nothing” is not a good response.

My comment never appeared. Nor did any other comments–which means either no one else tried to respond or their comments ended up in comment limbo as well. So what do you think the chances are that I become a regular reader? Put that business on my radar screen?

Silence isn’t always golden.

First contact can be the start of a beautiful friendship. Don’t squander it by shutting down a conversation before it even begins.

Photo by Katie Tegtmeyer (Flickr).

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The Rich (Marketers) Aren’t So Different After All

Daria Steigman — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:04:48 +0000

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “the rich are different from you and me.” (And Ernest Hemingway, unblinded by bling, is said to have replied, “Yes, they have more money.)

Turns out, when it comes to marketing, money doesn’t seem to yield a big advantage. According to From Stretched to Strengthened, chief marketing officers (CMOs) are struggling with many of the same challenges that keep small businesses up at night.

Under-prepared for Big Data, Market Fragmentation

It seems no one is ready. As the chart shows, CMOs report feeling unprepared to manage the impact of everything from social media to decreasing privacy and the erosion of brand loyalty. “CMOs are stretched,” write the authors. “Even those who work for the most successful organizations are struggling.” They add:

“One of the most surprising findings… is the degree of consensus among the respondents. No matter where they work, their industry, or how large or successful their organizations are, CMOs are facing many of the same challenges and most feel unprepared to manage them.”

One of the most interesting findings from the report is that many CMOs are still trying to understand markets (not individuals):

At one level, looking just at the challenges of harnessing the data, this makes perfect sense:

Relatively few CMOs … are exploiting the full power of the digital grapevine. Although nearly three-quarters use customer analytics to mine data, only 26 percent are tracking blogs, only 42 percent are tracking third-party reviews, and only 48 percent are tracking consumer reviews. This is largely because the tools, processes, and metrics they use are not designed to capture and evaluate the unstructured data produced by social platforms.

And, yet, the downside of looking only at aggregate data is that they are forced to make a lot of assumptions about individual behaviors.

Is There An Opportunity for Small Business?

Small businesses can have a competitive edge. Sure, we struggle with the same challenges. But we’re closer to all our stakeholders (especially clients/customers, and prospects), so it should be easier for smaller organizations to understand what makes our customers tick.

From Stretched to Strengthened, which reports the findings from one-on-one conversations with over 1,700 CMOs in 19 industries and 64 countries, also looks at the skills CMOs will need to be successful moving forward (including cross-collaboration, creative thinking, and an aptitude for analytics). There’s a lot of good data in the report, so it’s worth taking a look.

Do you think small businesses have an edge? What are you doing in your business to be prepared to meet the challenges ahead?

Why I Don’t Have A Marketing Blog

Daria Steigman — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:05:14 +0000

My target audience isn’t marketers. It’s businesses.

There’s nothing wrong with marketing blogs. Or PR blogs. Or blogs about kittens.

But too many business bloggers are really just writing for themselves.

What challenges do your clients, customers, and/or prospects face? Are you helping them move forward today?

If you’re blogging about kittens, I hope you have a pet store, or sell pet supplies, or at least have a business model with some passing reference to furry little feline creatures. Otherwise you have a hobby blog and not a business blog.

Photo by Eran Finkle (Flickr).

Are Blogs The New Business Cards?

Daria Steigman — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:15:04 +0000

Check out the latest data on business blogging from Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing report: 65 percent of respondents say that they publish a company blog.

Before you get too excited, two things to keep in mind:

Adoption of blogging as a business tool only grew four percent from 2010 to 2011.
These are likely mostly larger companies and/or Web-savvy smaller ones. Why? Because the latest State of Small Business Report finds that only 8 percent of respondents use blogs–and only 19 percent said that they update their Web site “at least once a week.”

In other words, the companies that understand what a blog can do for your business (thought leadership, lead generation, etc.) are doing it. The rest: not so much. While the data suggests that having a blog is a competitive differentiator for any business, it’s especially true if you’re a small business.

A colleague of mine said the other day:

“I think blogs are almost like business cards used to be.”

What say you?

Why Business and Politics Don’t Mix

Daria Steigman — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:24:58 +0000

It’s generally a bad idea to mix business and politics. (Unless, of course, your business is politics.)

My friend Deborah Brody pointed me to this story on Friday about a bar owner who used his blog to share his opinions about illegal immigration. By the time I focused in, it was a locally trending topic on Twitter. And, no, not all PR is good PR.

The problem with leading with your politics it that it’s almost always going to self-select who will do business with you. I recently happened upon a Web site (a business recommended via Twitter) with a prominent “Welcome Christian Small Business Owners” on the home page. No matter how awesome they might be at what they do professionally, the message they sent was that I’m not the client they want.

Maybe you’re fine with a winnowed universe of prospects. I’m not.

When I build relationships–with friends, colleagues, prospects, clients, etc.–I look for what we have in common. Not what will keep us apart. Toby Bloomberg similarly tackles this theme in a recent post in which she asks:

What does watching football games, a fractured foot, a party gal, a nap, late night lattes, a hotel PA system, and eating cheesecake have in common?

(Building relationships, of course.)

Why do you think people bond more over sports and books than donkeys and elephants?

Photo by A.M. Kuchling (Flickr).

The Secret to Regular Blog Posting

Daria Steigman — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:55:17 +0000

If you know the secret sauce, please let me know.

A lot of people have strategies to facilitate regular blog posts. In fact, I’m doing several things right:

Don’t strive for perfection. There are very few killer blog posts, and waiting until every element is perfectly formed and each post brilliantly crafted likely means you’ll never post. I aim for good writing and a cohesive idea.
Capture ideas. Too many people say they don’t know what to write about. This isn’t typically my problem. I’m constantly looking around at what might inspire me, whether it’s a snippet of conversation or something I read or heard. Even something random I saw driving down the street might jog loose an idea. And I write down ideas for this blog and Workshifting.com everywhere–in Evernote, on pieces of paper, on my white board.
Set aside time to write. I often draft blog posts on Sunday morning. (In fact, this post was written on my roof deck the other day.) It’s quiet time for me that I’ve set aside to write.

So what’s the problem?

My biggest barrier is when my Sunday morning gets hijacked by something else — a pressing deadline or just weekend activities. While I sometimes draft a post or two during the week, I often find it hard to quiet my mind from everything else going on in my work life.

That’s my barrier, and I’m still seeking solutions. Any ideas? And what’s your biggest barrier to regular blog posts, and how have you tackled it?

Photo by Dunleavy Family (Flickr).

What Marketers Are Saying About Social Media

Daria Steigman — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:50:42 +0000

Want to know how communicators are using social media? You could pose a question on Twitter or you could do a deep dive. MarketingProfs did the latter, surveying 4,763 marketers and others managing communications for their organizations. That included 3,285 who specifically said they are responsible for social media.

I don’t have a copy of The State of Social Media Marketing, but I did get a peak at some of the findings. There is some great data here:

48.2 percent said their organizations have a social media presence. They are typically companies that have “very little to hide.” Companies in industries with strict regulations and major repercussions for leaking information (think drug makers, bankers, insurers) are less visible.
60.8 percent who do social media said that it is not part of their job description.
Social media isn’t cheap: Most of those doing social media are mid- or senior-level people.
48.8 percent said their company has no official social media policy; 12 percent said they have a restrictive one.
There is a correlation between culture and the success of a company’s marketing efforts. Employees who blog (independently) can spark new ideas and increase prestige.
All the measurement tools are helpful, but incomplete. For example, 52.8 percent of those surveyed said that paid analytics tools are “helpful but incomplete” (versus 66.1 percent of those using Google and other free tools). And approximately one-third of respondents (33.6 percent) said that the paid tools “enable perfect tracking” (versus 28.1 percent for those using free tools).

There is also a lot of data about the disconnects between the tactics people use a lot (i.e., what’s popular) and the tactics that are most effective. For example, the most used tactics on Twitter are driving traffic (72.1 percent) and driving sales (54.2 percent)—how’s that worked out for you lately? In contract, the most effective Twitter tactics cited involved two-way communications strategies and monitoring for PR problems in real time.

Photo by webtreats (Flickr).

Don’t Know What to Blog About? 104 Ideas.

Daria Steigman — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:30:45 +0000

Don’t know what to blog about today? Well, Lisa Barone has come up with a solution. In a post for Small Business Trends, she identifies 104 topics covering your industry, your business, your customers, going social, and getting to know you.

The focus is small business–but Barone’s list is equally applicable to bigger organizations. Check it out here and get inspired all over again.

Photo by lilit (Flickr).

Is Collaborative Blogging Right for Your Business?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:14:45 +0000

My friend and uber-trainer Lee Watts asked me the other day about collaborative blogs. His idea is to bring together several colleagues in related fields (i.e., sports performance, nutrition, physical therapy, and so forth) to create a broader and more dynamic go-to resource. His question got me thinking about the broader pros and cons of collaborative blogs. Clearly, it’s a good idea for some businesses–but not necessarily for everyone.

There are definitely some benefits to having a collaborative blog, including:

potentially richer content across a sector, industry, or profession
you aren’t responsible for all the content
there are more people to share the posting load (which is exponentially more valuable when the primary posters aren’t natural writers)
the potential to attract a more diverse audience drawn in by one or more of the key areas of expertise

But there are also some downsides:

your company loses its unique branding
loss of control over the content (versus having your own blog)
you gain responsibility for bad content, but without the ability to remove it (i.e., whatever is on your collaborative blog reflects on your brand)
there’s a danger of losing blog focus
it’s harder to fire someone if they’re producing badly written or dull content

My recommendation: Keep your own blog and use guest posts to beef up your content and create opportunities for cross-blog collaboration. This will allow you to (1) keep your branding intact while showcasing your broader referral network; and (2) guest post to other blogs (and expand your visibility with new audiences). The exceptions: If you believe your area of expertise is too narrow to sustain a blog or you are unlikely to post at regular intervals.

Blogging for Business Value

Daria Steigman — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:55:03 +0000

Have you ever wondered why a growing number of small businesses are investing time and resources into starting and maintaining a blog?

My latest column for CW Bulletin is out, and the topic is blogging for business value. While there is no magic formula for business success, a well-written, well-focused blog can be an effective way of promoting yourself by adding value for your multiple stakeholders.

The column looks at three key reasons why, if you don’t have one, you might want to consider starting a business blog:

content
thought leadership
street cred

Plus it features insights from Marc Meyer and A.J. Leon, both of whom know a little something about successful business blogging.

Read the column here, then come back and let’s talk about why you are (or aren’t) blogging for your business.