Let me state categorically for the record I am not, repeat NOT looking for sympathy but as I’m writing this my head is pounding, my throat is sore beyond all recognition, and I got chills and they’re multiplying, only I’m not John Travolta in the movie Grease.

I preface my article with that for a reason… and that is to make the point that in today’s world – today’s hyper-active Tweet, text, post, like, follow, unlike, unfollow digitally-enhanced world we live in, any business, brand, etc., worth its weight in org charts needs to realize that they – their company, their business, their brand, is always on… with a capital ALL and a capital WAYS.

Like I wrote earlier, there used to be a time when you would call an 800# to voice a complaint, place an order and so on. And maybe you spoke to a real, live human being and maybe you didn’t. Often times you would get something to the effect of “Thank you for your message, we will respond within 2-3 business days” or something like that. Remember those messages? Geez, they’re still not out there, are they? Please tell me businesses and companies don’t still serve up the “we’ll get back to you” edict.

It boggles the mind, does it not?

Another thing that boggles the mind is the fact that so many companies, so many brands, still don’t get it. They still think social media is just about setting up a Facebook page, a Twitter acct, maybe a LinkedIn company profile and maybe a blog. And that’s pretty much it. Oh sure, they’ll post here and there but they will only engage and interact on their time.

Let me repeat that last line…

They will only engage and interact on their time.

Brands Can’t Take A Sick Day…

Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way.

There are no more “We’ll engage and interact on our time.”

There are no more sick days.

There are no more “we’ll get back to you later” directives.

At least there shouldn’t be any of these but of course we all know that’s not the case.

According to a study by MarketTools, only 23 percent of companies offer customer support via Facebook and just 12 percent provide customer service and support via Twitter.

Altogether now… WHAT?

From an article on ZDNET on this particular study…

“The study found 34 percent of the executives surveyed stated that they were aware of customers using social media to comment on or complain about their company and its products. Despite this, less than a quarter of these executives said that their companies “always” respond to these customers. Still, 33 percent of them said their companies have a greater focus on using social media to capture customer feedback when compared to the same time last year.”

If I didn’t have a headache before I read that last part, I surely would now after reading and re-reading it.

How in the name of Brian Solis and Jason Falls can an executive say on one hand that they know people are using social media to voice displeasure yet on the other hand state they’re not always listening, not always engaging? And even better is the fact 33% stated their company has ”…a greater focus on using social media to capture customer feedback when compared to the same time last year.”

Altogether now… WHAT?

Did the same executives answer the same questions in this study? I’m serious because I have no idea why there would be such a disparity in the answers.

Or could it be, just maybe that these executives – the ones who claim they have a better focus than last year are simply kidding themselves?

Could it be that these same executives really have no idea what social media is all about and that it sounds better to state they have a greater focus than last year?

Or could it be, as I posed not long ago, that many companies are too busy for social media?

Now my head is REALLY pounding…

Someone please help me interpret all this.

Sources: Google Images, ZDNET

Steve Olenski is a freelance writer/blogger currently looking for full-time work. He has worked on some of the biggest brands in the world and has over 20 years experience in advertising and marketing. He lives in Philly and can be reached via email, Twitter,  LinkedIn or his website.

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I’ve been trying to figure out why Pinterest allows you to change the URL of an image you have placed on one of your boards. To illustrate:

Here is an image on one of my boards.

Pinterest Image on One of My Boards

Here I am on the edit screen for the image.

Pinterest Image Edit Screen

Here is the source URL of the image.

The Source Page of the Image

Here I am changing the source URL to our agency’s Facebook page.

Source URL Is Changed

And now the image points to our Facebook page!

Pinterest Image Has Been Redirected to a New Destination

(Of course after this demo, I restored the original URL.)

Why?

Does anybody know why Pinterest lets you do this? Considering how valuable these links could be for SEO and lead generation, people should not be allowed to manipulate them.

I’m wondering if perhaps Pinterest is growing to fast to lock down the functionality of their site. Seems to me this is something they should address quickly, as it is a fertile field for abuse.

Anyone have any insight on this?

(Note: Brad works for Straight North, a Chicago agency that works with b2b firms in specialized niches like gas station credit card processing and rotary lift parts.

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The transformational trend of social business is disrupting and revolutionizing large and small businesses alike as the world becomes increasingly more interconnected, rewired and reoriented by social technology. Businesses are in the midst of fundamental changes that will neither reverse for stragglers nor offer them mulligans. Innovative leaders must rethink their social strategies and move beyond the linear, process-driven approach to dynamic, collaborative, networked organizations. Executing these changes may prove difficult, but it’s imperative for forward-looking organizations to be competitive in the global bazaar of the digitally powered landscape.

What Does Social Business Really Mean?

Social businesses implement social technologies, strategies and processes that span across their entire enterprise, creating and optimizing collaborative ecosystems of employees, customers, partners, suppliers, communities and stakeholders in a safe and consistent way. To transform into a social business, companies need to have more than a mere linear presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and blogs.

To achieve this, successful businesses must align their core goals and objectives in cross-enterprise collaboration and create a socially integrated organizational blueprint that focuses on people and culture.

Reason for Social Business?

Simply put, unless a company communicates well internally, it will not be able to communicate its brands effectively to the public. Social business deepens internal and external business relationships, which builds brand awareness and in turn drives profits. Companies that embrace social business will build stronger relationships and make better decisions with their employees, business partners and customers.

The State of Social Businesses

This dynamic business model is still in its infancy stage, but this tectonic shift in approach will eventually integrate itself across entire enterprises. As the social networking phenomenon continues to grow exponentially, more forward-thinking organizations will embrace social business’s “holistic” approach to communication.

Humanizing Future Businesses & Brands

Before a business can humanize its brand, it is imperative that it humanizes its business first. This process involves more than just meetings, lunches, phone calls, emails, golf outings or office parties. Instead, such an evolution requires the adoption of social behaviors and communication in every facet of the organization. People don’t think of a brand as a series of departments. Rather, they think of a brand as a whole entity. Businesses must live up to this perception and restructure both internally and externally in order to function as a cohesive unit.

What is a Social Brand?

Social brands are the sum total of the entire customer experience. Marketers constantly struggle to humanize their brands and seize upon opportunities to engage customers across a multiplicity of touch-points and social media channels. Scott Goodson in an article for Forbes claims, “It’s not just about ‘going social.’ It’s about becoming a social business. It’s realizing that marketing doesn’t work like it used to. Today, successful brands become social ones.”

Many organizations have evolved into social brands, but few have developed internal social processes. Behind the corporate firewall businesses are scrambling to engage effectively with their consumers. Despite their frantic efforts, however, their lack of internal communication and processes inhibits sustainable growth. Inconsistency in ROI measurement, corporate governance, culture, technology,  executive endorsement and internal conflict have created a great deal of chaos in many companies which lack the necessary social infrastructure.

Tearing Down Silos & Boundaries

This paradigm shift requires organizations to tear down the silos that keep them from creating future brands that are social, engaging, agile and rife with purpose. The same principles of trust that consumers demand from their preferred brands also apply to the way companies must learn to trust their employees.

Businesses must better define their employees’ roles and responsibilities, encourage cross-departmental communication and collaboration, build trust and encourage a culture of recognizing employees’ skills and talents, connecting metrics with objectives, training and educating, developing governance and policies, crowdsourcing creativity and innovation, and using a collaborative process-driven approach for selecting new technology.

It is imperative that the “turf wars” and dysfunctional deep-rooted behavior that exist between many CMOs and CIOs must cease. As I wrote in my article, “Quest for the Marketing Technologist,” the era of digital engagement demands collaboration between CMOs and CIOs in order for companies to remain competitive and relevant. “It isn’t about making the marketing team or the IT team look smarter, it is all about satisfying the customer’s needs better than the competition.” The effective implementation of social business will improve efficiencies and productivity not only in marketing and IT, but also in the supply chain, HR, sales, marketing, financial, research, etc.  Interconnected organizations will reap the rewards.

We’re in an era of collaboration, regardless of the size of our businesses; companies need to leverage collaboration to become more efficient, innovative and creative. I can think of no better example of effective collaboration than this video clip from the movie Apollo 13, where the seemingly impossible task of putting a square peg into a round hole became possible through the Apollo team’s effective, dynamic efforts.

Is Social the Future of Business?

In my article, “2012 Social Media Business Trends  – Is Social the Future of Business”?, I stated that the migration process from social media to social business will vary depending on the nature, size and strategy of your business. Regardless, the change will happen, and it is in your best interests to begin learning about some of these emerging social trends and tools as you consider how to capitalize on opportunities and achieve your business goals.

In the future, big companies will need to start acting more like smaller companies by connecting all their employees in order to achieve the unified vision of a social business. Conversely, small businesses have an advantage over their larger counterparts. Since both culture and people are essential to social business, small businesses can adapt easier because of their flexibility and ability to change quickly. In today’s digital market, small businesses may function with only a few employees, but their audiences may number in the thousands. Small businesses can leverage social business via their network of business alliances, suppliers, vendors, sub-contractors, freelancers, interns and customers.

Businesses Getting Personal.

In a survey conducted by AIIM, over 50% of organizations consider social business to be either imperative or significant to their business goals. Companies like IBM, Nokia and Ford are fast becoming social businesses by restructuring to put social media at the heart of their business, encouraging internal collaboration and communication and insight sharing. IBM’s white paper, “The Social Business,” states that “Social Business can orchestrate and optimize new ways of generating value through innovation, creativity and utilizing the right skills and information at the right time.”

“People don’t do business with companies.

People do business with people.”

Source:  IBM

IBM’s belief is that it takes networks of people to create business value.

IBM’s definition has three tenants that underpin its social business:

A Social Business is engaged—deeply connecting people, including customers, employees and partners, to be involved in productive, efficient ways.

A Social Business is transparent—removing boundaries to information, experts and assets, helping people align every action to drive business results.

A Social Business is nimble—speeding up business with information and insight to anticipate and address evolving opportunities.

Why is Social Business so Relevant to my Company?

The Social Business Forum answers this question by pointing to the extensive studies that show how social business can accelerate organizational efficiency both internally and externally. A few of the internal benefits include: stronger employee engagement and motivation, better business performance, small travel expenses, richer cross-department collaboration, stronger outcomes from knowledge intensive work, facilities for collective social capital and limiting duplication of effort, etc. Benefits outside your organization include: reduced customer care costs, improved client satisfaction and loyalty, increased lead generation, shorter sell cycles, improved cross-channels to customers, etc.

Fundamental Change

Social business is shaking the foundation of both large and small businesses. While change is never easy, companies that implement the best social media business practices and migrate from rigid to social business models will win in the end. The new social landscape is rich with opportunities as companies are challenged to elevate their relevance and become social businesses.

Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group, shared his latest research on the “State of Social Business”:

This post was originally published on AT&T’s Networking Exchange Blog.

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But what if…

What do you think would happen if you politely interjected and said, “Excuse me, sir, but let me call our hotel in New York for you and they can tell you all about what they might have available.”

Well, whether the customer takes you up on it or not at that precise moment will vary, but one thing is certain: That customer KNOWS that your entire hotel chain wants his business, not just the hotel that he happens to actually be in at that moment in time.

This isn’t a hypothetical situation, and conversations like this happen every day online. The problem? Hardly anyone is actually listening. Social media channels have given brands an opportunity to smash the isolated silos that their regional locations exist in. All you need to do is start searching for the right things. For companies actively hunting for these types of conversations, the benefits are huge. Here’s a perfect example that took place recently on Twitter:

@garyvee‘s tweet goes out > 14 minutes goes by > Chicago team sees Tweet > Chicago team responds, mentioning New York team > 2 minutes later > New York team responds > Gary tweets back with some kudos

Notice the wording in those tweets: Personal, not pushy. Not spamming deals, offers, or links. Simply conveying that “Hey, we’re here to help, let us know what we can do.”

What does this lead us to believe about the Waldorf teams and their brand?

• Waldorf Chicago has proven they’re listening, and not just about things pertaining to THEIR location, but to the entire hotel-staying community
• Waldorf Chicago is dedicated to the success of the TOTAL brand, not just their individual location
• Waldorf NYC has backup in case they happen to miss a particular query or mention
• Waldorf as a brand understands that social is about helping, not just selling

Waldorf’s example of someone catching the ball & then handing it off to a teammate to run with is great to see. In the short time it took for them to notice the original Tweet and type out a quick reply/notification, not only did they build a little bit of positive brand value, but they also can track this event and see if it converts in to an actual sale. This type of interaction is the point of first contact, and following the chain of events to their conclusion will allow a business to actually measure the effects of their social actions.

Individual locations do not need to exist in their own little, geographically isolated worlds anymore. Each location can help the other, and vice versa, to represent the brand as a whole and build relationships that extend far beyond any physical boundaries that exist.

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Do you work with clients?

If so, tell me if this sounds familiar…

You work with a single client for a while and you realize you need more money. The problem is, you haven’t increased your rates for quite some time, so asking for more money is a very difficult conversation to approach.

If you’d rather find a new client to supplement your income, that’s perfectly ok.

But what you may not realize is this is the perfect opportunity to shift your business model to give you more time, help more people, and ultimately do less work.

How taking on multiple clients could kill your business.

If you’ve ever simultaneously worked with multiple clients  on a “do it for you” model, you know just how unsustainable that can become.

Long hours, schedules that must be micro-managed, emails, phone calls, executing multiple strategies, speaking in different voices, dealing with the same issues over and over again, explaining what you’re doing, why you need to do it, gaining trust so you know how to sell ideas, and just when you believe in your idea more than anything, being told no.

The moment you take on a second client, two things happen:

1. Your work load doubles
2. Your attention span gets split in half

Now if you can handle that, more power to you.

Any time you want to grow on this model, you’ll always be multiplying your work and dividing your attention span.

Imagine yourself now with 10 times the workload and 1/10th of the mental bandwidth. Can you do this by yourself and still have a real life?

Probably not, that’s why you hire someone.

But hiring someone means getting them up to speed with your business, teaching them how to sell your ideas, then trusting they’re going to “do it right.” If their services don’t live up to your standards, ultimately it looks bad on you.

So either you run yourself ragged, or you’re lending your credibility to someone else. Neither one is very appealing.

Ideally, you want to deliver your services to fewer people at once without sacrificing quality.

The problem with your sales technique.

How much of the sales conversation do you spend talking about what you can do?

I’m going to hook you up with an online marketing strategy that will make you king of the internet. It’s going to include Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube and several niche social networking sites. I’m then going to get your email marketing going so I can point people in different directions to interact with you on every one of these channels.

I’m then going get you set up with a blog that is so SEOified you’ll take up the first 30 spots in Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Metacrawler!

While I doubt you say that exactly, think back to the last sales conversation you had.

Did you have a tendency to talk about everything you have to offer?

It’s understandable, the prospect of a new deal is exciting.

But if you’re wondering how to sell services at higher prices, jumping on your prospective client like a dog in heat may not be the best approach.

What your prospective client hears when you’re “pitching.”

While it seems like you’re impressing them with all of your extensive knowledge of your field, you’re really scaring them away.

They don’t understand what you do. If they did, they wouldn’t be talking to you.

What they understand is they have a problem, and you might be the solution.

What you can do to make it better.

Spend as much time as you can listening to their problem.

Like Kevin Nations would say, think of yourself as a Dr. or a specialist.

Listen to them describe their symptoms, and probe to learn just how painful those symptoms really are to them.

• Are they losing sales?
• Are they not getting feedback? Are they boring?
• Do their customers think they’re one thing, when they’re something entirely different?

Listen.

Listen to what they’re telling you and use bits of what they’re saying to help them realize their problem is serious. Don’t scare them, but help them realize a serious issue should not go untreated.

And just when you want to tell them everything you do, resist, and listen some more.

Don’t live up to their expectations.

What you may not realize is they’re expecting to be sold.

They’re expecting to hear all the wonderful things you can do for them.

They’re going into the conversation expecting you’ll make them feel dumb. They’re just hoping it’s not by some crazy degree.

So by actually hearing their problems you’re breaking their expectations. You’re allowing them to express their deepest fears about their business in a safe environment.

Remember, not everyone does that.

Yes, at some point you have to make an offer.

The best time for you to make that offer is when they’ve fully experienced the gap between where they are, and where they’d like to be.

But even then, don’t inundate them with everything you do.

Make your offer be defined by them and their specific pain points.

If you’ve been patient and spent the time properly diagnosing the problem, something very interesting happens in their mind.

They’re not thinking about how much it costs to fix the problem, they’re thinking about how it’s costing them to not fix it.

Because they’re getting specific solutions to their problems, not a laundry list of stuff they don’t know how to sell to their superiors,your prospective client will be able to more easily rationalize the higher cost.

Will every new person you talk to convert to a high priced client?

No of course not. Some prospects will scoff at the idea you would charge so high. Chances are likely they’ll go with a lower priced service provider and get lower quality work.

But even so, think of the extremely valuable information you’ve gotten from just listening to them one on one. They might not work with you, but it’s not a total loss.

It really helps you help the client who will work with you to overcome their fears that much easier.

When you take the time to fully understand your prospect, you become more than just some service provider.

You become a life saver. And that my friend is worth paying good money for.

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When your job responsibilities include engaging in social media, are the contacts you make truly yours, or do they belong to the company?

It’s a divisive topic for companies who engage in social communications. If you put an employee in the position of representing your brand in social media channels, what happens with that account if that employee leaves your business? How should you set up these accounts, and how ‘personal’ do you make them appear?

Recently, the story of PhoneDog and its former employee Noah Kravitz brought forth a shining example of how things can go horribly awry. PhoneDog alleges they setup the account & username for Kravitz to use for business purposes. Over time the number of followers grew to over 17,000, and when Kravitz left to work for a competitor, he changed the account name to his own & continued to use it.

On the surface, the answer seems pretty clear. PhoneDog setup the account for business, so it’s theirs. However, there are different perspectives that come in to play in the world of social media that muddy the waters. For example, is it certain that the followers were truly following the ‘brand’, or were they following Noah? What’s the context in which this account was used? Does the context even matter, or does the original intent of the account override any personal factors rising from how it was used?

These questions can be extremely difficult to answer for some businesses, and the decisions you make here could have huge repercussions in the future. These are questions not typically addressed in your average social media policy, as they generally stick to covering things like behaviour and the types of content being shared, not the ownership of connections being made between individuals. Fortunately, there are some sensible steps you can take to easily maintain a ‘personal’ face for your brand AND minimize the risk of disruption if certain individuals leave your business.

In navigating this minefield, the first question you need to ask is “Will the account be used for BUSINESS PURPOSES?” If the answer is “Yes”, then I believe that the following criteria for the setup of social media accounts would protect both parties regarding ownership of accounts that are used for business purposes:

• If the account was created under the individual’s personal identity prior to the beginning of the contract, the account remains property of the individual.
• If the account was created by the company for the purposes of official company communication/representation, then the account remains property of the company.
• It is appropriate for small businesses and sole-proprietorships to present themselves through the personal accounts of the owner, but it is important to keep in mind that any personal opinions shared through these accounts directly impact the image of the brand. It is nearly impossible to separate the brand of the business from the brand of the individual in these situations.
• In larger businesses, it is appropriate for special corporate accounts to be created for each individual who will be participating in social communications, and these accounts should be designated as such. Example: A Dell employee named Jim might communicate on behalf of Dell on Twitter using the handle: @JimAtDell
• Visually, choosing the right profile picture for the account is also important. Using the example above, it would make sense for @JimAtDell’s account to feature a picture of Jim with the Dell logo added to it in order to visually distinguish it as an official company account.
  

  Example of merging a company logo with a personal pic.

• If the company will have multiple individuals contributing through the same account, it is effective to add the initials of the individual posted at the end of each piece of content to designate the person responsible for that posting. Example: An employee named Mike Smith tweeting through the @starbucks account would end each of his tweets with ‘MS’
  

  Example of using initials to designate the source of a tweet on a multiple-user Twitter account.

• In situations where multiple people are using the same social account on behalf of the company, it would be appropriate for the profile picture to be that of the corporate logo, or other universally applicable image not associated with any one particular individual. Although in certain situations, one individual may be designated to be the figurehead of the account, and therefore use of their picture along with a logo would be appropriate.
• In certain situations, it may be wise to cross-reference the account of the individual and the account of the company in the bio spaces of each account. From the example we used earlier, Mike Smith’s @mikesmith personal twitter account bio might mention he tweets from @starbucks with the initials MS, and the @starbucks account might mention tweets from @mikesmith in its bio. This would help to ensure that business followers and personal followers are aware of the difference between the two.
  

  Example of Radian6 cross-referencing multiple 'tweeters' on their account

Ultimately, every company needs to choose the approach that best suits their brand & their goals. And in the event that the one, singular face of your brand in social media decides to leave your business, the reality is that some of your fans WILL inevitably go with them. Of course, how many fans leave will depend on more than just how you approach each of the factors I laid out above. HOW they leave, WHERE they go, and WHY they left will all play a role in how things pan out for your business.

The best approach, of course, is to maintain a clear line of communication to the employees managing the accounts regarding the company’s expectations. Make it clear at the very beginning that the accounts created for the purposes of business belong to the company. They are communications tools just like laptops and cell phones, and the employee should understand that when they leave they must return all property. That includes Twitter accounts!

On the other side of the spectrum, companies must recognize that just like personal laptops or cell phones, a personal Twitter account stays with the individual. If you ask or require them to use their own equipment or account for company purposes, then you’d better respect their ownership of it.

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There's Sales Power in a Business Blog

A Sales Perspective on Business Blogs

I’ve been in sales and sales management. I work with sales management in B2Bs that are in tough, sales-driven niches like vehicle tracking and custom food packaging. Every point of differentiation counts. Any edge, anything that makes you stand out, can be the difference between making a deal and losing it. So if I were a sales manager, here’s what I would tell marketing management about my company’s blog.

• A blog shows prospects how competent we are. When buyers see how much we’ve written about our industry, they can see that we’re serious about what we do and know our stuff. When it’s not just the sales rep telling them we’re good, it makes far more of an impact.
• A blog helps us prepare for sales calls. Did you know that our blog is one of our company’s best training tools? We’ve published posts on every client problem in the book, and about how our products and services make life easier for the customer. Our reps can quickly review key selling points any time they want — even from their laptops ten minutes before the call.
• A blog helps me train new reps. All new hires are asked to read our best and most important blog posts. It helps them absorb key talking points about our company, our industry, products, services, and our approach to doing business. It helps make them fully conversant on topics that come up regularly on calls, giving them confidence and making them more effective more quickly.
• A blog lends persuasive impact to our sales presentations. Our presentations include excerpts from and links to relevant blog posts. Doing this adds depth and authority to our proposals and differentiates us from competitors. Remember that our proposals are read by several decision makers and influencers, and getting them to visit and explore our blog shows them a dimension of our company that competitors can’t match.
• A blog helps overcome objections. When prospects or customers raise an objection, chances are good we’ve already written a near-perfect response in the form of a detailed blog post. We can send this post to the prospect, or walk him/her through it, which usually not only gets us past the objection, but shows the prospect we’ve thought things through and aren’t just winging it.
• A blog helps us build relationships faster. Our blog is written in a very informal style, and our writers show off a little bit of personality. And, the occasional posts from our CEO give prospects a feel for our style and vision. Browsing around our blog helps prospects get to know us and become more comfortable in making a commitment. A week rarely goes by that I don’t hear a customer or prospect tell me something favorable they learned about us on the blog.
• A blog helps us make more sales faster. Because of all the things I’ve just mentioned, our blog speeds up the selling cycle. I can keep more people making more calls and more effective calls.

Are you sure you want to nix our blog? Maybe we’d be better off blogging more and taking advantage of the competition scaling back.

Over to You

What is the sales purpose behind your blog?

(Image Credit: Fotolia)

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Blogs came in at #4 on the list. This shouldn’t be too much of a shock, since blogs are one of the oldest forms of ‘social’ on the list, according to how we define it today. We should take note that every item on this list (with the exception of ‘blogs’ and ‘forums’) are specific ‘sites’, like Twitter and Flickr for example. ‘Blogs’ however is a pretty broad term, and includes innumerable variations across such platforms as Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, and more.

What might surprise you, however, is that of all the social options available to marketers, blogs are indicated as the one area that will see the greatest increase in activity in 2012. Why would this be? Shouldn’t blogs be the one area that would see the LEAST amount of growth, since there are other newer shinier social sites popping up all the time? You’d think so, but you’d be wrong.

Businesses must recognize the extensive list of benefits that come as a result of maintaining a relevant and up-to-date blog. Blogs are one of the most effective ways to convey what your brand is REALLY all about. What you talk about, and how you talk about it, gives your readers a very personal insight in to what the culture of your business is. It sheds light on what the core values and beliefs are in your organization by addressing what you stand for, how you view issues facing your customers, and how open your business is to talking about what’s going on behind the logo.

In addition to the obvious ‘branding’ benefits that come with maintaining a blog, there are many other benefits that might not be apparent at first glance. Not the least of which is the boost you can achieve in organic search traffic. You see, it’s most likely that your main website is optimized for a certain collection of keywords. These are typically your brand name, specific product names, and product or service types. However, when writing blog posts you create an entirely new batch of content that answers completely different types of search queries.

While your public website might be optimized for terms or things like ‘computer repair’, or ‘flower arrangements’, your blog posts will start to appear in search results because of specific questions that they answer. For example, if we use the ‘flower arrangements’ product/business type, you might write a blog post about ‘Most Popular Spring Flowers for Weddings’. Now, this blog post would appear in the search results for much more specific questions about that particular topic, like “what kind of flowers should i choose for a spring wedding?”. You’re not just showing up to sell ‘flowers’, you’re showing up to answer a particular call for help.

My experience  has shown that searchers who find helpful content as a result of a more specific question, rather than just a product page appearing from a short keyword, are more likely to spend more time on the site READING the material that answers their questions. Through blog posts, you’re not just trying to sell them something; you’re trying to help them learn more about the topics that interest them. The goodwill that occurs through being genuinely helpful goes a long way to building relationships with your readers, so that when they do need to buy, you’re much more likely to be their first choice.

The big bold benefits of blogging for business will come in varying degrees, based on the approach you take. The more you do, the benefits grow exponentially. If you’re simply using it as a press release newsfeed, don’t expect much in terms of results. If you’re using it to reach out, to answer questions, to offer help, and to provide added value for your readers then your hard work will pay off. Let’s just hope that for the sake of readers everywhere that the increase in efforts of businesses in 2012 will be of the more ‘helpful’ variety.

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One of our SEO specialists was telling me how he gave up on Google Reader after its latest design “enhancement” and is now using email feeds.

Interesting. There’s always been a rather large group of people who prefer email for business and never bothered with feed readers. Joining their ranks may be disaffected RSS subscribers. Personally, I don’t care much for reading blogs in my feeder, either:

Google Reader - Kinda Ugly

Feed readers are great if your blog’s audience is made up of people who know and love RSS. Our clients, who are industries like merchant credit card processing, write for people who don’t know anything about RSS but are very accustomed to receiving — and acting upon — email newsletters. If you want to reach readers who prefer email, how can you get them to subscribe? Here are 5 tips.

1. Put together a good subscription block on your blog’s sidebar. Pictured to the right is the email subscription block for Everything PR, a site I write for from time to time. The strengths of their design:

• Clear explanation of what content you’ll receive
• Why the content is worth receiving (it’s the latest news)
• Clear instructions on where to enter your email address
• Big, bold SUBSCRIBE button

If I could suggest a couple improvements, I’d give the block more visibility by placing it at the top of the sidebar, and eliminate the “… or simply subscribe …” verbiage to keep the message focused. In all, though, this is the way to do it.

2. Add subscription blocks to other pages of your site. You may be thinking blog, but visitors to your site may be thinking newsletter. The fact that your “newsletter” consists of blog posts is immaterial to them. Another nice feature of Everything PR’s signup block is that the copy is suggestive of a newsletter: it would look quite natural on any page of a website.

3. Give new subscribers a gift. Everybody needs a little push, and something as simple as a coffee mug or tee shirt could do the trick. Plus, circulating your swag helps offline brand awareness and lead generation. Imagine your subscription box with a little message under the subscribe button that says “Sign up now and get a free coffee mug” …

4. Put a signup link in your email signature. A simple text link is all that’s necessary. Jut say is something like, “Get our latest news via email”.

5. Make an email blog subscription a secondary offer on landing pages. If you’re running PPC campaigns or social media contests, the landing pages are excellent spots to pitch an email signup. Remember, most visitors to a landing page are not ready to buy (i.e., act on your primary call to action), but are probably in a mood to collect more information. Thus a call to action such as “Subscribe to our blog via email for the latest industry news” may prove to be very enticing.

Over to You

What creative ways have you found to attract more email subscribers to your blog?

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