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Posts Tagged ‘blogs’

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Good Blogging is a State of Mind

Darren Rowse had an interesting blog post recently about the lessons he has learned from his five-year-old son about blogging. His son, otherwise known a “X”, is really into art, and often thinks about his next project while doing other activities.

It is a concept that resonated with me because, in many respects, blogging is about the next post. By their very nature, blogs are fluid and dynamic creatures. A good blog (and bloggers) constantly keeps moving forward. As much as a particular post can be fantastic, it is not long before the next post must be produced.

For some people, the steady demands of blogging can be overwhelming, which is why many blogs die on the vine after a few weeks or months. The need to “feed the beast” is a fact of life. By not blogging on a regular basis, a blog can lack the consistency it needs to attract an audience.

So what are the things that can be done to keep the beast happy?

A key is coming up with a non-stop flow of ideas that can be turned into blog posts. As important is the recognition that ideas can come from anywhere. You can be talking to a friend or colleague. Ideas can come from a newspaper article, blog post or newsletter. They can emerge when you’re working out, taking a shower or listening to music.

Given this reality, it is important to “bookmark” these ideas as they materialize. Keep a piece of paper or small notebook in your pocket, or have a text document on your desktop to quickly write down ideas. By being disciplined, you will be surprised by how quickly a notebook or document can start to fill up with ideas.

Not all of these ideas are going to be amazing but there will be enough quality ideas to keep your blog vibrant and consistent. As important, you’ll discover that as you open yourself up to ideas and start capturing them, the ideas will start to flow.

To paraphrase Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” (see the video below), doing well with your blog means being in a “Blogging State of Mind”.

By Mark Evans - January 23rd, 2012 - 3 Comments »
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Posted in Social Media

Social Media in 2011

2011 has been a pretty big year in terms of social media.

We’ve seen new social networks appear and flourish like Quora, Google+ and Pinterest. We’ve seen big changes in some of the major social networks like Facebook’s Timeline, a running history of your online life, and Twitter taking a more strategic role as to how people are using the network and how they can start to generate revenue from it.

As well, we’ve seen a large uptake in the use of social media, both from the general public and from businesses with some pretty cool results. With all that said, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at how people talked about “social media” in 2011 using MAP, our social media monitoring and analytics software.

Going back to January 1st of this year and searching for the terms “social media,” “socialmedia” and “#sm” I pulled up some general stats around all the social media chatter this year. For 2011 I found social media mentioned in 2.2 million blog posts, 1.4 online news articles, 295,354 forum posts and 12.1 million tweets.

Trended out over time, talk of social media for the year looks like the chart below. Twitter of course dominates because of it’s quick and easy to use nature. It’s interesting to note that blogs and online news about social media seem to follow in a very similar pattern. I also did a little extra digging into the largest spike on the chart around, June 30th. It turns out that June 30th was Mashable’s Social Media Day, so there was even more chatter that day using the words “social media.”

Next I took a look at where all the talk was coming from. The following chart represents all social media talk across all the channels we cover combine. We can see that the USA controlled a large portion of the conversation at 56.8%. The UK was the second largest producer of social media talk about social media with 16.3% and Canada came in third 5.7%.

I then dug a little deeper into two main social media channels to look a little closer at the demographics. When I looked at just blogs, I found the USA still lead in conversation about social media, but this time they only accounted for 47%. Here again we also see the UK with the second most conversation (11.4%) and Canada rounding up third (6.0%). We can also see that the “other” category accounts for a lot more in blogs by making up 21.5%, which means that blogs everywhere seemed to be talking a lot about social media this year.

So, just who was doing all this blogging about social media? I first looked into the gender breakdown. It turns out males account for 60% and females for 40%. While not even, I think that those numbers are fairly close considering the amount of blogs about social media we saw this year.

Something I found interesting was when I looked into the age of the bloggers. While most people think that social media is for the younger generation, I found that the age group that blogged most about social media was those aged 36-50 years old with 37.5%. Bloggers aged 21-35 came in second with 33.3%. Those aged 51 and over made up 25%, while the youngest set, 20 and under only accounted for 4.1%.

Next I look at the industries that were blogging about social media throughout 2011. A little surprising, but education blogs actually held the greatest amount of conversation with 17.3%. The second most amount of social media conversation came from blogs in the communications and public relations field at 15.2%. The thrid place spot was tied between marketing blogs and those focused on the internet with 8.6% each.

I then headed over to Twitter. Here I found the same pattern in terms of who was talking about social media by geographical location. The US made up 49.7% of the conversation, while the UK followed8.3% and Canada coming in third with 5.5%.

The gender of Twitter users talking abut social media seemed to be a bit more split however. On Twitter males accounted for 64% of people talking about social media while the females made up the other 36%.

Lastly, I headed back to take a big picture look at what people were actually talking about when they were talking about social media. Pulling up a word cloud that spans all social channels it seems that business seemed to dominate the conversation about social media for 2011. We can see that words like “business” and “marketing” seem to be some of the largest words in the cloud meaning they came up the most. We can also see that “Facebook” and “Twitter” seemed to be the the two social networks that were talked about the most (which isn’t very surprising as they’re the two most adopted networks).

So how was your 2011 in terms of social media? What were your highlights? Let downs? Lessons learned? Let us know in the comments.

By Sheldon Levine - December 29th, 2011 - No Comments »
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Posted in Samples, Social Media

2012: The Year of the Blog

Do you remember when blogs were sexy? Think about the time before Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It was only five or six years ago that blogs were new and shiny, and it seemed that everyone was either enthusiastically writing one or reading lots of them.

As more social media services burst on to the scene, blogs were shuffled to the sidelines. Compared with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, blogs became stuffy, staid and matronly. Blogs also required time, effort, creativity and hard work, while just about anyone could climb on the Facebook and Twitter bandwagons.

But a funny thing seems to be happening.

Blogs are coming back into vogue – sort of like the skinny ties your father used to wear that became hip and cool again.

As brands embraced social media, many have started to realize an essential part of being successful with social media is having content as the engine to drive it. This explains why content marketing is all the rage.

Not surprisingly, blogs are playing a key role within content marketing because they are vehicles that brands can use to provide value-added information and insight.

And unlike other social media services, brands own their blogs and reap the benefits such as improved SEO, increased Web site traffic and thought leadership.

Surprise, surprise: blogs are sexy again.

Brian Solis does a nice job in describing why blogs have so much appeal. ”Blogs are underrated and largely underestimated. Not only are they platforms for self-expression, shared experiences and observations, they are becoming a live index of history in the making as told by people for the people.”

Now if Brian Solis, one of the leading social media practitioners and influencers, thinks blogs are the cat’s meow, you have to think brands should pay attention.

For Sysomos, this blog has played a key role in our marketing efforts over the past three years. It takes a lot of work to produce five posts a week but it hopefully offers existing and potential customers with a lot of food for thought, ideas and insight. And once in a while, we even talk about our social media monitoring and analytics services, MAP and Heartbeat.

You will likely be seeing more attention being paid to blogs as Technorati has released its 2011 State of the Blogosphere. In the introduction, Technorati said that:

“The Blogosphere is constantly changing and evolving. In 2011, we are seeing bloggers updating their blogs more frequently and spending more time blogging. The type of information influencing blogging has shifted from conversations with friends, which was the primary influence in 2010, to other blogs, which for 68% of bloggers are having more of an influence in 2011.”

Translation: Blogs seem to be back, baby!

What do you think? Are blogs becoming the belle of the ball again? If so, how do blogs play with what brands are doing with other social media services?

By Mark Evans - December 23rd, 2011 - 7 Comments »
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Posted in Social Media

Can Content Marketing Reinvigorate Blogging?

Ever since Facebook, Twitter and YouTube appeared on the scene, blogging has been pushed out of the spotlight.

Blogs are not as sexy, blog posts take longer to create than a tweet or update, and video is easier and faster for multi-taskers to consume.

This is not to suggest blogging is going to disappear but it doesn’t have as much social street curb, which explains why so many corporate social media plans don’t start with a blog.

But here’s an interesting question: Can the emergence of content marketing as the new and sexy way for companies to reach and engage with consumers have a positive impact on blogs?

At the core, content marketing is about creating content (blogs, whitepapers, case studies, videos, etc.) that gives companies a competitive edge because they provide consumers with value, perspective or entertainment to consumers during each part of the sales process.

Content marketing is also getting more search engine optimization (SEO) traction based on the idea that if the content is compelling, it will attract inbound links and be indexed by search engines.

So what does this have to do with blogs?

While not sexy, blogs are SEO-friendly because the search engines love fresh content. Blogs are a great way to offer insight, information and entertainment because they can be used in a variety of ways to engage consumers. And because blog posts aren’t a snap to create, companies that are consistent and creative can establish a competitive edge.

At the meshmarketing conference (which I co-organize) in Toronto last week, Marcus Sheridan (aka The Sales Lion) offered up a first-hand perspective on the power of blogging and content marketing.

The co-owner of River Pools and Spas in Warsaw, Va., Sheridan turned to blogging (and videos) in late-2008 when the U.S. economy slid into recession, which was not a good thing for someone selling a product that can cost as much as $70,000.

In creating lots of interesting content, Sheridan was able to attract dramatically more traffic to his company’s Web site, which boosted sales at a time when many of his rivals were struggling.

For anyone who loves blogging, Sheridan’s presentation was uplifting because it demonstrated the value that blogs deliver and, as important, why companies need to consider blogs as a key digital marketing weapon.

By Mark Evans - November 21st, 2011 - 1 Comment »
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Posted in Social Media

Five Ways to Maintain Your Blogging Passion

Truth be told, blogging is probably the most challenging part of the social media ecosystem.

Writing a blog requires time, ideas, creative and writing skills. And there the effort required to consistently generate good content is considerable, particularly when the ideas aren’t flowing.

So how do you keep your blogging passion? What keeps the posts coming day after day, week in week out?

1. Be passionate. The easiest way to keep things humming along is being focused on a topic or topics that you’re passionate about. This makes it more fun than work, even though there is a lot of work involved. Have a focus also lets you allocate resources (mostly time) more efficiently than having a scattered approach.

2. Be consistent. Like exercise, blogging is easier when it’s part of the regular routine. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. If you stop working out or blogging on a regular basis, it can be difficult to get going again.

3. Variety if the spice of life. Blog posts that consistently take the same approach, style and length can feel like a product on an assembly line. On the other hand, writing different types of blog posts can be like cooking different meals each day. Sometimes, a post is a lengthy opinion piece, sometimes a post is a short comment on a news event or a post written by someone else, and sometimes a blog post is a video or a photo with a caption.

4. Read other blogs. It is important not to operate in a blogging silo in which all you’re doing is writing about your own thoughts or ideas. By reading other sources, it opens up the world to new ideas, perspectives, companies and people. Inevitably, it leads to some inspiration or even a nugget of an idea.

5. Get out and about. Talking to other people and hearing their ideas and thoughts is a a great way to spark new ideas for blog posts. In these situations, taking some quit notes can generate a flurry of potential blog posts.

More: Paul Jun has a blog post on Problogger talking about the benefits of taking a break from blogging to jump-start your blogging activity.

 

 

 

 

By Mark Evans - November 3rd, 2011 - 2 Comments »
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Posted in Social Media

Why Corporate Blogs Fail

I’m a big believer in corporate blogs as a vehicle to provide insight and information, establish domain leadership, generate content for a variety of needs (including to fuel social media) and as a way to enhance search engine optimization.

Yet for all the benefits that blogs offer, it is surprising how many companies don’t do a good job with them.

One of the biggest issues is companies have a difficult time not seeing blogs as being focused on anything else other than themselves. It’s the classic “it’s all about me” syndrome that afflicts too many companies who regard blogs as yet another marketing vehicle.

As a result, a corporate blog tends to be about new products or features, events, corporate news, media and blog coverage, and the activities of senior executives.

While this content may be interesting to people within the content, it has little long-term appeal to anyone else, including partners, suppliers, investors and the media. It may be hard to accept but this kind of content doesn’t have widespread appeal.

So what is interesting and how can a corporate blog provide insight and information, including corporate updates, on a regular basis?

The secret, which should be obvious, is having a broader focus that includes industry developments, news and trends that are interesting to lots of people, even competitors.

It is content that is interesting and valuable. It may encourage readers to become customers or do more business with a company, or it might not encourage someone to buy anything. At the end of day, the underlying goal is to establish a strong presence and goodwill within the industry by being seen as a valuable contributor.

By Mark Evans - August 1st, 2011 - 2 Comments »
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Posted in Social Media

Have Blogs Really Become Un-Trendy?

I’m a big fan of blogging. Since catching the bug in 2004, which seems like a long time ago, my love affair with blogs has never waxed or waned.

Along the way, I’ve started and written about 15 months blogs. Many of them have come and gone, although my personal blog has been humming along with at least five posts a week for the past seven years. As well, I’ve written the Sysomos blog since early-2009.

In my heart of hearts, I still believe blogs to be the most effective and powerful medium within the social media landscape because they provide a platform for insight, information and thought leadership. At a time when there is a growing amount of digital noise, blogs offer a way to stand out from the crowd. A good personal or corporate blog can achieve all kinds of positive benefits.

Despite my enthusiasm, there is no denying blogs are no longer the belle of the social ball. They’re hard work, and take a lot of time, effort, consistency and creativity. As a result, they stand in stark contrast to easier options such as Twitter, Facebook or, for that matter, Tumblr.

This reality hit me recently while reading a column in the Globe & Mail by Leah McLaren, who wrote that “These days, though, people think in kitten-video virals and 140-character limits, and thoughtful, well-written blogs are about as trendy as thoughtful, well-written books – which is to say, they’re still culturally relevant, but not very trendy at all.”

As a hard-core blogger, it is a tough thing to swallow but if one were to look at the glass as being half-full, there is an upside. Blogs may not be sexy but they are definitely solid citizens that have established strong foothold. They have become as much of the editorial landscape as newspapers and magazine. They may no longer be sexy but blogs are still around, they still matter, there’s a huge audience and, as important, there continues to be a steady flow of people starting and launching blogs.

Part of social media’s appeal and soft underbelly is people are fascinated with shiny and new baubles, which explains why it’s so easy for something to jump into the spotlight and then disappear. The fact blogs have stuck around even though they aren’t trendy is a testament to the medium and the value they deliver.

By Mark Evans - June 6th, 2011 - 3 Comments »
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Posted in Social Media

How to Write a Great Blog Post

Coming up with content for a blog on a regular basis can be a challenge. Coming up with great ideas for blog posts can be even more daunting. So how do you write posts on a consistent basis that stand out from the crowd? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Start with an original idea or a different slant on a news story or a major announcement. People are looking and interested in new thoughts or approaches to a problem or issues. Part of what makes the blogosphere so interesting is the ability to discover people who think differently and can introduce new ways of thinking.

As well, it’s also a good thing to go against the grain. When everyone is talking about how the new BlackBerry Playbook is a disappointment, a good post might be how the PlayBook fits into the long-term strategic direction of Research in Motion. It’s a post that embraces the news of the day but takes a different approach.

2. In coming up with your own ideas for a post, it is also important to cite the people who influenced your thinking. This publicly thanks them for their contributions but, as important, shows readers you have done some legwork and content-crunching before coming up with your own post.

3. Be willing to write against the news flow. Far too often, bloggers jump on the bandwagon about a breaking news event. The problem is the bandwagon can be overflowing with lots of people writing the same things about the same event. Instead, focus on writing about something else. While it can be risky to create a post not about the new hot thing, you will be surprised by how many people are looking for something else other than the big news of the day.

4. Take a position as opposed hugging the middle of the road. Come out passionately for or against something as opposing to taking the safe, neutral route. People get engaged when they either violently agree or disagree with you. You may even want to write a post disagreeing with another blogger, which can spark a good conversation.

5. If possible, provide interesting charts or graphs – even if you have to create them yourselves. People tend to be visual and tactile, which means they like options other than a sea of text. By providing charts, graphs or photograph, your posts will be punchier and livelier.

6. Put a snappy or creative headline on it. You can waste a perfectly good post by using a lame or uninspiring headline.

7. Use a graphic, chart, photo or video to avoid presenting readers with a “sea of text”. Again, the best posts can be undermined if a blog visitor thinks reading all your words is too much work – something that a photo, for example, can help resolve.

8. Cross your I’s, dot your T’s and check your spelling and grammar.

By Mark Evans - May 17th, 2011 - 4 Comments »
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Posted in Social Media

How to Keep Your Blogging Enthusiasm

There are many benefits to blogging but, truth be told, it can be a lot of work. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, writing a blog post is something you can’t whip off in a minute or so. You need an idea, it has to be articulated in an engaging way, and well written.

Like anything that takes a lot of work, your enthusiasm can start to wane, particularly if you’re writing a blog on a regular basis. After awhile, the ideas may not be flowing as well or a case of writer’s block emerges.

So what are the things you can do to maintain your blog spirit? Here are a few tips:

1. Keen in mind that not every blog post has to be an opus offering in-depth perspective and insight. Blog posts come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Sometimes, they are long, thought-provoking pieces. But sometimes they’re short and poignant posts that deliver a punch in less than 250 words. Seth Godin has established a reputation as an expert bloggers, whose posts are only a few paragraphs long.

2. The collection of ideas is a continual process that can happen anywhere and any time. They key is being able to capture ideas when they pop up, which can happen in front of your computer, during dinner, at the gym, while having drinks with a friend, or while watching television. Having a notepad and a pen (or an iPhone) can be a good way to not let the good ideas escape.

3. Don’t force it. Sometimes, blog posts take awhile to arrive in the world. If you’re sitting in front of your computer but nothing is happening, walk away. Get something to eat, read the newspaper, go for a walk or listen to music. Sooner or later, the inspiration will come.

4. Read other blogs to see what other people are writing about and thinking. Spend some time on Twitter or go through your RSS reader as a way to gain information, insight and ideas. Who knows, you may come across a blog post that you violently agree or disagree with, which could spark a blog post of your own.

5. Unless you are compelled to blog every day, take a break once in a while. The blogosphere will go on without you. In the meantime, you can recharge your batteries and creative juices.

6. Immerse yourself in other activities to completely break away from blogging and the Internet. It could be playing hockey (a personal favourite), cooking, bicycling, going to the theatre, or spending time with your family. Again, it’s the time away from blogging that makes your a better blogger.

So what are the ways that you stay enthusiastic and engaged about blogging?

By Mark Evans - May 10th, 2011 - 1 Comment »
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Posted in Social Media

Is the Blog Comment Alive and Well?

There has been a lot of hand-wringing about the death of the blog comment in recent months.

Part of it has to do with the fact there are so many places to leave a comment such as Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook and LinkedIn. It also has to do with the fact the novelty of the blog comment may have dissipated. Then, there was Facebook’s recently foray into the comment market, which was seen by some people as another blow to the blog comment.

In the wake of this concern, it is interesting to see Disqus announce a $10-million financing round led by Union Square Ventures and North Bridge. Disqus, one of the leading blog comment systems, also said it is close to attracting 500 million unique visitors/month. Disqus, which was spawned at YCombinator, said the money will be used to expand its “team, our products” and “on building our long-term business.”

So what should we make of Disqus’ financing? Is it a sign that rumours of the blog comment’s death have been greatly exaggerated? Is could also mean Disqus has emerged as the top dog in the comment business, pushing aside rival Intense Debate and, for the time being, Facebook?

From personal experience, the blog comment appears to doing well amid lots of different kinds of competition. On the Sysomos blog, there are posts that generate a lot of comments, which demonstrates the right kind of content can strike enough of a chord to spark a response.

Aside from good content, the other important issue is making it as easy as possible to leave a comment. If you make it at all difficult to comment, most people will click away rather than spend the time to leap over a hurdle – and this includes making people register, which is an absolute non-starter.

So here’s to the blog comment’s health. May it continue to live a long and prosperous life!

By Mark Evans - May 6th, 2011 - 2 Comments »
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Posted in Social Media

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