Stay in the know

Keep up with industry trends and new information. You can share these things directly on your blog. Read news sites, articles on respected industry leaders, and any other material related to your business for inspiration. You can even get ideas on what to write about from your competitor’s blogs too.

Keep a list

Sometimes the best ideas for a blog post come to you when you’re not blogging. Convenient, huh? Keep a pad of paper or even loose scrap paper by your computer, on your nightstand, or wherever you tend to get your best ideas. We’ve even heard of people putting a memo board by the shower. Do what ya gotta do, I guess.

Invite a few guests

Do you frequent another industry professionals blog? Do you have a well-spoken customer who’d love to talk about her experiences with your product? Invite them to submit a guest post on your blog! Whenever you get burned out on blogging or have a severe case of writer’s block, it can be helpful to ask someone else to step in. It gives readers a new perspective and gives you a break.

Hire a pro

Sometimes writing just doesn’t come naturally to people. If this is the case for you, it may be beneficial to hire a professional writer for blog posts. You can even dictate which topics you want covered and the voice in which you want the piece written. There are many freelance writers around the web who will write for reasonable rates. It may be worth the penny to avoid the stress of writing for non-writers.

Recycle your posts

Have you had your blog up and running a while? Consider revisiting some of your old blog posts to provide readers with updated information, a new take on things, or a refresher course. You can even combine a “best of” list to give readers a resource for finding their favorite posts. Another great idea is to rewrite articles or other content you’ve written for your company and use it for blog material.

Teach them something

People love a good how to. (Just look at the title of this post!) Do you own a hometown restaurant that’s famous for its steaks? Post a tutorial on how to perfectly cook a ribeye. Are you the owner of a self-serve frozen yogurt shop? Post a blog on how to create a staff favorite, like the Snickery Cheesecake Blast (or whatever that kid on your staff made up). The great part about this is that you’re talking about something you already know and it gets the customer anxious to try your product. It’s a win-win.

But seriously, you need to know about this great resource for small business owners and bloggers alike. What is it exactly? I’ll explain.

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where users can tag and organize images found around the web into categorized groups. You can pin things all by yourself by adding the URL of the cool thing you’ve found or you can repin things that other users have already added. An image is then added to a virtual board of your choice for future reference. The result is a large pool of shared images, articles, resources, and even better — LINKS! That’s one thing I’ve yet to mention. Each image is tied to the link where it was found.

So to summarize, Pinterest is like an online version of the corkboard you used to have hanging above your bed in high school with every magazine photo you loved…except with links and the ability to snag pins from other people. Got it? Let’s move on.

As I said before, perhaps the greatest part of Pinterest for business proprietors and website owners is the whole link part of the deal. Do you own a small bakery in your home town? Maybe you just blogged about a recipe that you wanted to share for the upcoming holiday season. Pin it to Pinterest! Other pinners, such as myself, would fall over themselves to repin something like that. And then, my friends would see my pin and they may add it to their boards too. I, as well as my group of friends, would then visit your site to get the recipe when the holidays arrive, if we haven’t been there already.

It’s a win-win for everyone! We get an original recipe for our holiday celebration. You get traffic to your site and potential new customers…all for free. Isn’t that a wonderful price?

Now, the verdict is still out on the quality of Pinterest links for SEO purposes, but traffic to your site is always a good thing, right?

Yes. The answer is yes.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about what makes a website a “good” or “bad”. Stay tuned to see which company wins a brand new, custom website. The contest has been extended to Halloween, Monday October 31, 2011. Get your bad website entered or vote for the scariest site now.

Where is Your Audience?

There are several social media outlets around the web: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google+, LinkedIn — just to name a few. But before you dive headfirst and sign up with every site you hear about, you need to think about where your target audience would be. Instead of spreading yourself across 10 different outlets and struggling to keep up, chose a small number that you know your customers are already using and monitor them really well. Every business is different, the sites that work for your business, may not work for others.

Stick with it

You can’t just make a profile and a couple posts in one day and think you’re done. Making social media work for your business takes time, some thought, and even a few strategic moves. If you don’t think you can dedicate the time and energy to really see it through, hire someone else who can or come up with a new strategy. For example, if someone finds your company’s Facebook profile and there’s only the basic information and a couple of posts from four months ago, they may think that you’ve closed your doors. Yet, if they come across your page and see tons of new posts, some photos of your new products, and that they even have some friends that are fans of your brand, you may have a new customer. At the very least, you’ve piqued their interest. Updated profiles show potential clients that you value customer input and interaction.

Keep the Conversation Flowing

Once you set up your social media account, don’t just sit back and let your fans do all the talking. Chime in there and interact with them. Even create content that entices comments and conversation. Also, give your followers some kind of reward for being a fan. Coupons, exclusive deals, discounts, and valuable information are all things people love to get, earn, or share with their friends. This will keep them coming back to your profile — and hopefully your business.

These are just a few tips for the starters out there. If you’re a seasoned pro, what kinds of social media strategies work for your business?

Online video production has slowly opened a flood gate of new opportunities over the past 10 years. In May of 2011, 176 million users watched a video online. Those are numbers not to be ignored. Check out the full specs below.

In the old days, TV dominated the market for video commercials, shows, etc. There really was no other option to get your videos promoted until the internet came far enough along to really start hosting/streaming video (anyone remember the first time you landed on the YouTube homepage?).

So here is the best part: it costs NOTHING to put your video online for the world to see! Yet, almost everything you see on TV is paid promotion. There are many powerful paid promotion techniques used online as well, but as you can expect, it is less expensive. Along with a huge cost break in promoting online, producing a video for online use is also much less expensive than it is for older media such as TV. You do not have to go to Hollywood to make a nice commercial for your small business. Technology has advanced so much in the last few years, many inexpensive options have popped up throughout marketing agencies.

The bottom line? Online video is the largest and most viable option to promote an idea, product or service in today’s market. Find out how to get started now.

- comscore press release may 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings

• Answer all inbound calls;  field support calls and route all other calls to the right folks
• Handle support and some outbound communication via social media and email
• Assist sales team with social media community management (promote events, share links, answer questions, etc.)
• Full time, hourly role. Health insurance benefits after 90 days.

So here is my little list of ways you can improve your site’s content, right now, all by yourself.

Avoid Duplicate Content

I know it’s tempting to snag that awesomely written content from your competitor’s site, but don’t. Not only is it considered plagiarism, but Google (and the other search engines too) will penalize you for it. It’s also not very fair to your readers and customers. When people visit a website, they expect to see new and interesting content, not the same thing they just read somewhere else. Set yourself apart.

Conduct a Spell Check

If you write your site’s content in a program that doesn’t have a spell check feature, just take one extra step. Copy and paste your text into whatever word processing program you prefer and have it check your spelling. Nothing kills your professionalism quicker than a bunch of misspelled words on your company’s website.

Less Embellishment is More

You may think that writing certain words in ALL CAPS is eye catching, but to your consumer, it looks like you’re yelling. Bolding, excessive exclamation points (!!!!!), and Capitalizing Each Word In A Paragraph are all things that are both annoying to the consumer and make it look like you’re trying way too hard.

Don’t Be Too Wordy

As the business owner, you may love the rich history behind your brand and want to share it on every page of your site. But please don’t. Customers generally want to learn about your products or services first. Put all of the other stuff on the About Us page. As for the rest of your content, keep it short and to the point too. Online readers have a very short attention span. Attract them with your pretty, shiny products and then, if they’d like to know more, house that info out of the way.

Get a Second (Honest) Opinion

When you’re the one writing the content for your site, you have a bit of a skewed view. Of course you love it and think it’s great. But you’re also not the person you will be reading it and making the decision to buy from you. Once you finish your content, it’s always a good idea to ask someone to read it over and offer you feedback and suggestions. Don’t pick someone who’ll be afraid to hurt your feelings. Honest feedback is what will help your sales.

Hope that helps,

Megan