Home
Products
Solutions
Reports
Company
Blog
Contact Us
Client Login

Posts Tagged ‘tips’

« Older Entries

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 »
Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media

How Small Businesses Can Thrive Using Social Media

For small businesses, social media has been held out as a low-cost opportunity to jump-start their marketing and sales efforts. After all, the tools are, for the most part, free and they can help level the playing field against larger competitors.

The challenge for small businesses is their ability to successfully embrace social media so it becomes part of how they operate rather than a bunch of free tools with untapped potential. Many small businesses get excited about social media but they drop the ball when it comes to tactical execution. Here are some tips on how to make social media happen.

1. Recognize that just because the tools are free, there is a cost to use them. The cost may not be monetary but, rather, time, effort and resources, which are “assets” that small businesses may not have an abundant supply. To make social media happen, someone has to do social media on a regular basis to gain a solid foothold.

2. Be committed. Like many companies, small businesses enthusiastically rush out of the gate with social media but, in time, lose their enthusiasm so the amount of activity fades and then eventually disappears. Social media is no different than other effective sales and marketing activities; it requires a day in, day out approach that may produce instant or significant results.

3. Make sure someone is allocated to do social media. It could be the small business’ owner, the person who does the marketing, or an intern. At the end of the day, someone needs to nurture social media much like gardeners nurture and grow a garden.

4. Be realistic. Small businesses who think social media is going to dramatically change their fortunes will be disappointed. As much as there are success stories such as Milwaukee restaurant A.J. Bombers, they are anomalies that can create a false impression of what social media can deliver. For most small businesses, it is important to recognize what they realistically want to get out of social media, which could simply mean connecting on a regular basis with their core customers.

5.  Look for inspiration and ideas from other small businesses. This could come from reading social media blogs, going to conferences, or getting together with peers. This is important because it means you don’t operate in isolation, which can be one way that your social media mojo will disappear.

By Mark Evans - October 26th, 2011 - 1 Comment »
Tags: , ,
Posted in Social Media

Six Tips to Deal With Social Media Overload

Ever since its launch in June, I have been trying to get my head around Google+.

It’s not so much the features and benefits but how to fit Google+ into an already crowded and time-consuming social landscape.

It’s difficult enough keeping up with the tsunami of blog posts, comments, tweets, updates, linking and sharing without having yet another social media service vying for my attention.

It means I haven’t spend much time with Google+, although I have good intentions to embrace it or, at least, get a better appreciation of it. But with Facebook, Twitter, LinkIned, blogs and a bunch of content aggregation tools battling for attention, it has been challenging getting Google+ into the mix.

I’m pretty sure the challenges that I’m encountering are becoming more widespread as our use and consumption of social media increases.

According to a recent Nielsen study, social media now accounts for 22% of all time online. The big challenge is making sure that the growing consumption of social media doesn’t become overwhelming.

With that in mind, here are some tips to avoid being overloaded by social media:

1. Be sure to create distinct goals for using social media. It’s about being focused on what you want to get out of social media as opposed to simply using it. Without a plan of attack, there’s a high possibility of killing time with no productivity gains.

2. Be disciplined with your time. Be honest and pragmatic about how much time you can realistically invest in social media to achieve your goals or needs. This has to include your professional and personal activity.

3. Create a schedule for using social media…and then stick to it. Allocate slots during the time to use social media. It could be several 15-minute chunks thorough the day, or 30-minute slots in the morning, mid-day and after work. It might be helpful to look at social media as a reward for being focused for a certain period of time.

4. Pick your poison. Social media is a giant buffet, overflowing with lots of attractive options. And much like a buffet, it is hard not to overeat. To avoid over-consumption, you need to eat enough but not too much. It means picking social media services offering the best bang for the buck, rather than using every social media service on the assumption that more is better.

5. Adopt a one in/one out approach. It’s perfectly acceptable to explore a new service but you may want to consider embracing it only if there’s capacity within your social funnel, or getting ridding of something else that is no longer compelling, interesting or valuable. This helps to keep your social media portfolio manageable and do-able.

6. Use a multi-service management tools such as HootSuite, TweetDeck or Seesmic that make it easy to get a quick handle on a variety of social media services and, as important, let you post to different services at the same time.

How do you avoid social media overload. What approaches, techniques or tools do you employ?

By Mark Evans - September 14th, 2011 - No Comments »
Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media

How to Boost Your Social Productivity

Social media is compelling, interesting and valuable but it can also be a time-suck and productivity-killer. One minute, you’re creating a PowerPoint presentation before the call of the Twitter distracts you for the next 15 minutes.

So what can be done to use social media more productively and efficiently to make you control it rather than the other way around?

1. Turn it off. This is the extreme solution for people who have a difficult time resisting the urge to flip over to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or their RSS reader but it may be the only effective way to control your social media behaviour. This approach takes a lot of discipline because it is like going cold turkey – a challenge given social media has become an inherent part of our digital lives.

2. Establish time slots for social media. For many people, this is likely a more reasonable approach than not using social media at all but it still requires discipline. Using this management method, you create slots during the time to use social media services. It could be 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at lunch and 30 minutes later in the day. It means having “social structure” so you can focus on other activities without feeling the urge to jump over to social media.

3. Embrace less is more. Rather than splitting time between multiple social media services (aka the shotgun approach), it might be better and more productive to focus your creation and listening efforts on one or a small group of services based on the idea that less can sometimes be more.

4.Create metrics to assess your performance. At the end of the day, there should be an end-goal for using social media. It could personal or professional brand-building, Web site traffic, lead, sales or conference invitations. Whatever metric is relevant should be measured on a regular basis to see if social media is meeting expectations, otherwise you may just be singing into the wind.

5. To publish content, explore the idea of a multi-platform tool such as Tweetdeck or HootSuite that lets you write once and publishing to a variety of social media services at the same time.

If you are interested in learning more about digital productivity, a good read is Mark Hurst’s Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload, which is a free download on iBookstore and 99 cents at the Kindle store.

By Mark Evans - August 23rd, 2011 - 4 Comments »
Tags: , ,
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 »
Tags: , ,
Posted in Social Media

How Small Business Can Succeed at Social Media

For small businesses, social media can be a highly attractive and seductive creature because from the outside looking in, it’s a low-cost activity that can drive their communication, marketing and sales activities.

The harsh truth, however, is social media can be an “expensive” proposition for small businesses because it consumes their scarcest resource: time.

To be successful at social media, companies (big or small) have to devote enough time and resources (aka people) to create content, engage and monitor activity.

It may not cost a lot of money in terms of dollars and cents but the non-monetary costs (time, people, energy) can be expensive, especially when they compete against other things a small business could be doing.

So how can small businesses be successful at social media? Here are few tips:

1. Create a strategic plan with well-defined goals and objectives. Whether it’s a small or large company, it is crucial to know why you want to plunge into social media and what you want to get out of it. Too many companies, particularly small ones, rumble into social media without a plan of attack or a clue of what they want to get out of it, and then wonder why their efforts are ineffective.

2. Align your social media activities with the available resources. If you’re an entrepreneur with an hour to spend on social media each day or you’re able to have an employee or intern spend a couple of hours a day on social media, it is important to make sure these resources are effectively focused to generate the maximum return. It may mean only having a single social media service as opposed to several but I always stress that it’s better to do one thing really well rather than multiple things in a mediocre way.

3. Be realistic about about your goals and objectives. Small businesses don’t have large teams they can throw at social media so wild success – e.g. thousands of followers and “Likes” – may be unrealistic. Instead, small business should focus on quality rather than quantity. Aim to hit a series of well-stroked singles rather than home runs. This will keep your expectations at a reasonable level while providing room to eventually hit doubles and maybe triples and home runs down the road.

4. Remember that social media is not a short-term, quick-return proposition. Instead, it’s an activity that needs to happen on a day in, day out basis with progress measured in inches rather than miles. At the same time, you can’t go through the motions and expect to be successful; you need to be creative, engaged and pro-active.

5. Enjoy your successes, even the small ones. If you get a 100 followers on Twitter, for example, that’s cause for celebration. If a blog comment attracts a lot of traffic or a bunch of comments, put the spotlight on that as well. Social media is hard work so you need to pat yourself on the back when milestones are achieved.

By Mark Evans - July 27th, 2011 - No Comments »
Tags: , ,
Posted in Social Media

The Art and Challenge of Listening

As more companies look to embrace social media, one of the biggest questions is “How do we get started?”

The immediate reaction is to create a strategic plan, but perhaps the best and easiest place to start is to simply listen to what’s being said about your company, brand, products, services, industry and rivals.

It’s a great way to discover the amount of activity, the kind of conversations happening, the tone of these conversations, and, as important, whether there is an opportunity jump on the social media bandwagon.

A company may learn there are lots of conversations going on so it makes complete sense to leverage social media. It may learn the competition is using social media well or not that well, which will have a huge impact on the approach a company might take to social media.

The company could discover that no one is talking about their products, competitors or industry, which means there is either a huge window of opportunity, or that doing social media makes no sense because it’s not resonating with target audiences.

The best thing about listening is it doesn’t need to involve a big investment in money or people. Instead, companies can use a variety of tools – some free and some paid – to listen over a period of time so they can decide whether social media makes sense.

After doing a listening “audit”, a company should have enough information and intelligence to figure out next steps. In other words, listening is a pragmatic and cost-effective way of taking a step toward social media as opposed to jumping into the fray only to discover there’s little or no return on investment.

For more thoughts about the value of listening, check out John Jantsch’s post on Duct Tape Marketing.

By Mark Evans - May 24th, 2011 - No Comments »
Tags: , , ,
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 »
Tags: , ,
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 »
Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media

Introducing Our New Resource Center

Our goal here at Sysomos is to continuously help you and your company make the most of social media. Be it by constantly updating our product line to better suit the ever-changing needs of our customers, providing interesting and relevant blog posts and by constantly educating our community through webinars and speaking engagements.

With that in mind, we are proud to announce the launch of our new Resources Center on our website. In this section of our website you will be able to find information that can help you and your brand make the most out of using social media. This section will be continuously updated with new content designed for people just starting out with social media all the way to the more advanced social media professionals.

Our first addition to the Resource Center is the presentation Different Types of Social Media Channels. Inside you will find introductions to some of the most popular social media channels; blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, forums and message boards. As well, the presentation points out different ways in which each of these channels can be used along with some real life examples of how existing companies are using them.

In the blogs section we explore different kinds of blogs and how they can be used. For example, will your blog be done to shed insight on what is happening within your company? Will it be insight from someone like your CEO? Will it focus on your industry? Will it show that your brand is a thought leader in your industry? Or, will your blog be used internally for your employees only? Will you have one or many blogs? With explanations and examples of each style you will be more informed to make the right decision for how your company will approach social media.

Please take a look at our new Social Media Resource Center and keep checking back for new and updated content. Also, please leave your comments on the content and what you would like to see in this section in the future.

By Sheldon Levine - April 27th, 2011 - No Comments »
Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Announcements, Social Media, Tips & Help

« Older Entries
© Copyright 2005-2012 Sysomos Inc. All rights reserved.