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Don’t Think Twitter’s Not For Business

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I know, I know.

Lots of people consider Twitter to be “the great time waster of the century”. (As is expressed in the cartoon below from the folks at Ranked Hard.) And it’s true; lots of people post “TMI”  — what they had for breakfast, how hung over they are, and so forth.

But there’s more to it than that, especially for your business.

A couple of years ago I wrote a piece about how people look for the same things on Twitter as they do on Google, except on Twitter they’re asking their friends. “Anyone know a good plumber?” “Anyone know an experienced business attorney” “Anyone know a social media consultant?” “Anyone know a web designer?” Give it a try — search Twitter to see who’s asking for referrals to someone like you. If anything, it works even better now.

Using Twitter for business.

Like this post? Please say so with the Like button above or the +1 button below. Or tweet it with the button up top. Thanks for sharing.

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4 Ways to Get More Readers On Your Blog

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Your Blog Is an Important Asset  — If It Attracts the Readers You Want

 

Promote your blog.

Your blog is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an authority in your field and to get your brand identity known broadly. It also allows you to receive and respond to feedback from people interested in your services and your blog topics. The more people who read and like your blog, the better known you and your brand become. It’s well worth the time and effort to promote your blog. Thanks to Endurance Marketing for the inspiration for this post.

1) Promote Your Blog Far and Wide

Shameless promotion of your blog on as many venues as possible will expose it to hundreds or thousands of new potential readers. Here are the most essential things to do:

  • Get your blog listed in the top human-edited blog directories. That includes directories like Technorati, Blogarama, Blogged, Blogernity, Blog Flux, On Top List, Blog Hub, and Blogger Now, among others.
  • Include prominent links to your blog from the main navigation of your website and also in your page footers.
  • Establish social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, at a minimum. Include a link to your blog in the About section of each of them.
  • Include a Facebook Like button on your main blog page and on all individual blog post pages.
  • Make it easy for readers to share your blog posts on their own social pages to expand your reach to all of their connections. The tool we use here is from AddThis. It provides opportunities for readers to very easily promote your post to all of their followers on almost any social media site imaginable.

Blog2) Promote Every Blog Post Your Write

Don’t just write a great blog post and hope people will flock to it. Promote it in social media. At the very least, write about it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. And be sure to include a link to your post when you do that. For our clients, we typically promote each of their posts on about a dozen of the best social media platforms.

3)  Promote Your Blog On Your Emails

Don’t overlook the opportunity to include a link to your blog in your email signature block. That exposes your blog to anyone you correspond with.

Promote your blog! Here’s how.

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4) Promote Your Blog on Other Blogs

Many blogs have a blogroll  — a list of other, usually related, blogs that may be of interest to their readers. You can see an example of that over on the right, in the section called Other Blogs of Interest. Seek out blogs related to your topics and contact the owners of those blogs to suggest they add you to their blogrolls. You may be asked to add them to your blogroll in return, as well. If you create compelling blog posts with great information that’s helpful to your target market, similar blogs may be very eager to link to you from their blogrolls.

How do you promote your blog? Let us know in the comments below.

Like this post? Please Like it or share it with your friends via the links above, or click on the Click to Tweet above. Thanks in advance for helping us promote our blog!

Need help with promoting your blog and your website, and showing up prominently when buyers search for what you have to offer? Rank Magic can help.

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Do You Write Compelling Headlines?

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Are you writing good headlines?

You need to write attention grabbing headlines!Your web page or blog post or newsletter may be astoundingly helpful or surprisingly informative, great fun to read and generally a gem that your target market really needs to know about and read. But if your subject line or headline isn’t good “click bait”  — something that will make it impossible to pass up without clicking on it  —  no one will know.

You need to grab them with the subject line. In an email newsletter, it’s the subject of the email. In a social media post it’s the headline you give the post or the first few words of the post. On a web page  it’s the page title that will show up in search results. And in a blog post it’s also the page title, but that often duplicates the primary headline of the post.

How to write good headlines for SEO.

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The Value of Good Examples

One thing I’ve often found helpful, especially when a headline or subject line seems beyond my grasp, is to look at some examples.
Info Marketing Blog reprinted 100 great advertising headlines with a brief discussion of each. Review them and you’ll get a sense of what elements go into a real compelling, click bait subject line.

The Financial Brand has s helpful set of rules for creating a killer subject line, even though their focus is financial.

From an advertising perspective, Crazy Egg has a list of nine steps to follow to create a compelling subject line or headline.

And Position Digital has an excellent set of seven steps to a compelling SEO-appropriate headline.

If you don’t get enough inspiration from these sources, try searching in Google, Yahoo or Bing for headline ideas or how to write a headline. There are some great ideas to get you through that writer’s block.

BTW, if you found this helpful, please share it with friends: Like it or tweet it with the buttons on the left or the Click-to-Tweet above.

Join the conversation and share your thoughts in the comments below.

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A Cool Half-Dozen Reasons You Need a Blog Now

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Six reasons you need a blog.Do you really need a blog?

Once you have a blog, you can easily leverage it to spread your brand, gain authority in your field, and greatly improve your visibility on the Internet. Here are six reasons a blog will pay you back all out of proportion to the effort it takes to maintain it.

Why your small business needs a blog now!

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  1. Interact with clients & prospects. Write provocative posts that generate comments and questions. You can respond and establish both authority and accessibility at the same time.
  2. Gain Directory Links. You can list your blog in perhaps two dozen blog directories. If your blog is hosted on your website domain (it should be!) then all those links  help your website’s link popularity. See Bloggapedia, Blogarama, and BlogHub.
  3. Syndication Possibilities — other blogs may re-post your blog posts for their readers, dramatically extending your range of influence. Plus you get backlinks that hepl your website rankings.
  4. Social Media canspread the word about your blog.Social Media Exposure — You can set up your blog so every post automatically gets listed on your Facebook Fan Page. The periodic updates there keep your fans engaged. You can also easily post a link to your blog post at other social media sites: Digg, Mix, Reddit, LinkedIn, Merchant Circle and so forth. That expands your reach and also generates backlinks.
  5. Real Time Exposure via Twitter. Tweet each blog post as you publish it to get the word out to your followers. Others interested in what you do will find you and follow you. You can see ours here.
  6. You can even push your blog out on Kindle and actually earn money when people subscribe to it!

Yes, having a blog takes a certain amount of discipline to write at least one good post a month, but it can rally pay off in your branding and your visibility on the web. We can share some time-saving and labor-saving ideas that we’ve put into practice for our own blog. Call and ask how we can help.

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5 Reasons NOT to Delete Negative Reviews

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Why Not to Delete Negative Reviews

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We all hate them, but don't delete negative reviews.
I know that negative review hurts.

Negative online reviews are hurtful to your pride and your business. Enough so that a whole new industry has sprung up: “reputation management”. I get it. Negative reviews hurt, in more ways than one. The first reaction is to try to delete negative review. But … Don’t.

 

Lisa Barone, of Outspoken Media,  has written about five excellent reasons to not delete negative reviews but to leave them in place. More importantly, she explains how to leverage them to your advantage. Here they are, but I encourage you to read Lisa’s article for a full understanding.

  1. You want the conversation to happen at home
  2. It’s a chance to change the conversation
  3. You get to show off your customer service
  4. It gives you street cred
  5. You get feedback you can act on

Fight the urge to try and delete negative reviews. They’re no fun, but if you respond properly you can turn them into a positive experience for everyone who reads them.