Z-Blog

I Believe in the Power of Blogs: They Make Us Understand

2012-02-10T15:38:00Z

A whole bunch of media companies have been closing access to their digital content by paywall systems. Many of them aren’t capable of illustrating issues at hand in a way that all of us would understand or for some reason they just don’t get it. I say, this is a great opportunity for bloggers to take over the role of generating public awareness.

Have you seen this interesting retro infographic that easily explains a complicated concept such as the US debt? It has been circling the Internet in the past couple of weeks. It shows everything that’s wrong with the US budget. It’s so simple, yet so powerful. I did the same for my home country and came to similar conclusions.

We, the bloggers, have done this! We’re living in the world when newspapers are especially panicky and are looking for new ways to survive in the environment where many expect great content to be free online. It’s premature to proclaim that metered paywalls will save the newspaper industry. Some quality media report success, others don’t. However, the traditional mass media online seem to be making it harder for many to access their stories. This is an opportunity bloggers should seize; not just because many don’t want to pay for information online, but also because many still don’t know how to tell compelling stories and opinions in simple and memorable ways.

Michael Ausiello

Bloggers are publishers. And everyone can be a blogger. Moreover, many former editors, journalists and activists have already left their employer (the traditional media) and set up a lucrative blog – an alternative source of information and opinions online (for example, The Huffington Post, TV Line by Michael Ausiello, etc.).

And then there are us, opinionated individual bloggers, each with different skills: we tell stories with words, pictures, infographics, live blogging (let’s not forget live blogging during the hurricane Katrina), videos, etc. All of us together and each one individually have been gradually taking over the role of generating public awareness about issues around us. We, the bloggers, have become an indispensable source of boundless information. And each one of us uses the storytelling technique he/she is most familiar with and good at. And we are free to express ourselves as we want to. That’s why we are able to tell stories in so many different and especially creative ways and make an impact.

In the end, I’d like to stress I’m not crying the end of journalism or the mass media apocalypse. No, what I’m saying is that the blogosphere has become a very strong force; bloggers are (becoming more and more) influential and beneficial to us all. We are finally a meaningful alternative.

Do you believe that bloggers can do what traditional media for whatever reasons can’t?

Blogger vs. Journalism: Is either less valid? (lehsys.com)
Reblogged Vs. Retweet: A Case for the Former (zemanta.com)
Guest Blog Post – Is Blogging Still Relevant? (zemanta.com)

A Letter by a Selfish Consumer: Why I Prefer Company Blogs (Vs. Websites)

2012-02-06T18:35:36Z

I’m really excited to introduce Nenad Senic who will regulary contribute posts to our blog. He is a content marketing expert and is working as european editor at Content Marketing Institute and also regularly blogs at his own blog at Disput. – Tin

I am biased, way biased. As a journalist, geek and extremely curious guy, who’s always afraid he may miss something, I constantly crave more information and news. And I’m an avid reader. Indeed, static websites don’t do much for me. They may dazzle me with their oh-so-great design, but if they’re not regularly (in my case as regularly as possible) updated with great new content, I stop caring; I simply don’t have any reasons to come back.

There’s already been so much blogged about blogging and especially company blogs. Zemanta’s own Bostjan Spetic last week blogged about why he thinks every professional should at least consider blogging. I decided to list my own reasons why I think a company blog adds more value than a static website – from a consumer’s perspective. (Let’s make one thing clear. A blog is a website, but a much more dynamic one.)

Here are my four reasons why I prefer company blogs vs. static company websites.

(Photo credit: the Italian voice)

1. Blogs are about me, not them

The company blogs I follow regularly publish relevant and engaging content. They are all about how to make my life easier (what to do when I get sick, how to write better, how to get more customers for my small business, how to learn to knit sweaters, what are the best ways to clean windows, etc.). On the other hand, static websites are mostly about the company (who they are, what they do, where they are, why they are the greatest, they they they). I’m sorry, but I’m selfish and I care about my problems, because “they are mine”, as Ally McBeal once said.

2. Blogs engage me

Good blogs I follow are also engaging. They make it much easier for me to engage in a two-way conversation with the company and others who read the same blog. Good blogs make me feel important (we all like that), make me think, make me share my views on the issue at hand. Besides, our interactions can be easily transferred to and shared on social media.

3. Blogs help me make better purchasing decisions

All of the above helps me make better purchasing decisions. I become loyal to the brand, because I feel like we have built a great relationship, because I feel that company really cares about me and my problems, and their products and/or services can satisfactorily solve them.

4. Blogs make me smarter

In the end, good company blogs satisfy my curiosity, they actually can be blamed for my reading more. They are a trusted media outlet, a great source of information I like to follow regularly as much as any other favorite news websites. They make me (feel) smarter.

It looks like I’m not alone in this. According to Hubspot’s 2011 State of Inbound Marketing Report, “the use of social media and company blogs as marketing tools not only gets your company better brand exposure, but it also generates leads that result in real customer acquisition«. Their study shows that 57 per cent of those using company blogs have acquired a customer from a blog-generated lead; this is an increase of 11 per cent since 2010. Moreover, their 2011 survey confirms a direct correlation between blog post frequency and new customers acquired!

What do you think? For what other reasons are company blogs better than websites? Do you think differently? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Reblogged: The Real Reason the Inc. 500 Is Made Up of a Bunch of Crappy Bloggers

2012-02-03T20:17:12Z

In line with today’s post by Boštjan, Marcus Sheridan makes a strong case why blogging is here to stay.

The Real Reason the Inc. 500 Is Made Up of a Bunch of Crappy Bloggers

This article won’t be long. And it won’t be very romantic either. But it needs to be said, so here goes. I was reading a great post by Mitch Joel a few days ago that led me to the following article found at ReadWriteWeb , who wrote about a recent study the University of Massachusetts did on the blogging trends of the Inc. 500.

via: www.thesaleslion.com

Reblogged Vs. Retweet: A Case for the Former (zemanta.com)

5 reasons why you should consider blogging

2012-02-03T17:56:56Z

Some argue that blogging is passé, but nothing could be further from the truth. Available tools enable all of us to express ourselves, share our views and especially knowledge and experience with a much wider audience than ever before. I really believe that everyone should and can blog. Indeed, it’s not surprising to anyone who knows me that that is a reason why Zemanta is part of my life: to make blogging easier for everyone.

Last weekend I read Antonio Cangiano’s (IBM) great blog post on why every professional should consider blogging. It inspired me to think more about why we all should do it. Here are my five main reasons why you should at least consider blogging if you’re not already doing it.

1. Blogging improves your storytelling skills

Blogging is about storytelling, either in words, with pictures, videos or podcasts. Storytelling is nowadays essential part of (content) marketing. But storytelling isn’t so much about talent; it’s a skill that needs constant nurture. Practice makes you better. And blogging is a perfect opportunity to polish your storytelling skills.

2. Blogging improves your communication skills
By polishing your storytelling skills, you also improve your communication skills. Are you shy, introverted, do you have low self-esteem, maybe you don’t know how to sell yourself? Blogging will help you overcome these obstacles. Communication essentially means to convey information to others. The better your communication skills the better you can sell your ideas, skills and knowledge to others. This is one of the reasons why I started blogging in the first place.

3. Sharing is caring
I am a whole-hearted advocate of the philosophy that knowledge is to be shared. Blogging can be a great platform for sharing what you’ve learned and know with others who may be interested in what you have to say and learn from you so they can improve their lives.

4. Position yourself as a thought leader
Blogging helps you build corporate and personal credibility. This is how you can position yourself as a thought leader in the marketplace. Indeed, thought leaders are perceived experts and everyone is expert in something. When done right, blogging can give thought leaders great visibility in the search engine results. Therefore, blogging connects you with others. That’s how great blogging can be.

5. Blogging builds your personal information repository
This is another reason why I decided to blog. Every day we are bombarded with tons of information we try to consume. Every one of us has his/her own way of looking for particular information. Blogging, however, helps archive information you will sooner or later need again. I regularly browse my blog and in this way remind myself of issues, solutions, and ideas I might have already forgotten, but are still useful. Sometimes it’s fun and a bit of an ego boost (we all need it from time to time) to check how far you’ve come.

What do you think about these 5 main reasons why everyone should blog? What other reasons would you add to these five?

Guest Blog Post: 3 Reasons YOU Are Not A Thought Leader (zemanta.com)
Point of View: Jason Falls (zemanta.com)
Zemanta Best of 2011 – Power User Interviews (zemanta.com)

Zemanta and Federated Media Announce Strategic Partnership

2012-02-02T17:58:08Z

We are extremely excited to announce a new strategic partnership with Federated Media where we will jointly work together on new products to enable bloggers to connect with brands.

The products that we will create together with Federated Media will bring tangible revenue to independent writers. We believe this is a major next step in building the blogosphere as an alternative to traditional media.

The partnership will provide bloggers with a content authoring plug-in that invites them to create brand-sponsored content in real-time. Authors will now start the conversation via sponsored posts and brands will then be able to join the conversation in a transparent, authentic and respectful way.

This new offering will be available in addition to our current offering that helps content marketers and SEO experts to leverage their high-quality content.

Find the link to the official press release here. We’ll release more details about the products and their availability as we get closer to production but would love to hear your feedback in the meantime!

Zemanta now available on WordPress.com (zemanta.com)
Zemanta Raises Biggest Financing Round To Date (zemanta.com)
Zemanta Now Supports Posterous! (zemanta.com)
2011 – Zemanta Year in Numbers (zemanta.com)

Zemanta Power User – Stephanie Bernaba at Momma Be Thy Name

2012-02-01T23:28:18Z

This week we talked to another awesome Zemanta power user Stephanie Bernaba who blogs at Momma Be Thy Name.

Who are you?

My name is Stephanie. I am a former behavioral health professional turned stay-at-home mom of a two-year-old boy and one-year-old fraternal twins.

What do you blog about?

I think the better question is what don’t I blog about? Obviously, a large chunk of my writing centers around my parenting (mis)adventures, marriage, and navigating life with three babies aged two and under, but I also write about society, the challenges of being a woman, and topics that otherwise fascinate, confuse, or irk me.

When did you start using Zemanta?

Honestly? I started using Zemanta as soon as I noticed it in the bottom right-hand corner of my WordPress screen, which would be the better part of my public blogging career.

How does Zemanta help you blog better?

Zemanta both saves me time by effortlessly making images and related content available to me and enhances my own content with the resources provided. It’s intuitive, and takes most of the work out of adding interest to my blog posts.

Do you have a power user tip that you can share with our users?

When I find an image I wish to use, I right-click rather than left-click it, which gives me the freedom to then scroll through my work and choose the most appropriate place to paste it. Also, I adjust image size after I insert it into a post by clicking back into the image and adjusting the size percentage, so it doesn’t overwhelm the text.

Are you a Zemanta power user? Want to be featured on our blog? Please let us know!

Zemanta Power User: Allison Boyer of BlogWorld and Blog Zombies (zemanta.com)
Zemanta Power User: Ted Curran, Instructional Designer (zemanta.com)
Zemanta Power User – Michele Neylon of Blacknight (zemanta.com)

Hackday Report: Zemages – Get Related Images

2012-02-01T19:40:35Z

: Screenshot of Zemages

Our Ljubljana team had a hackday past Friday and came up with some awesome hacks. We’ll highlight them throughout the week on the blog. Here’s the first one.

Many bloggers depend on our image recommendation to get great images into their blog posts.

Need access to cool images but aren’t a blogger? No problem! Zemages allows you to search by keyword and you will receive a list of related images.

Unlike Google Image Search, recommended images shared by Zemages are covered by a Creative Commons

You can try out Zemages at:

http://code.zemanta.com/drazen/zemages/

Disclaimer: This project was completed in one day, so it may be a little rough around the edges.

This hack was brought to you by Ron (design) and Dražen (html, js, css etc), and is based on Rok’s idea (who had another idea that he worked on).

Let us know what you think!

Zemanta Hack Day Summer 2011 Report (zemanta.com)
Zemanta Summer HackDay – Part II Report (zemanta.com)
Zemanta Hackday Spring 2010 (zemanta.com)

Reblogged: 7 Tips to Build Quality Backlinks for Better SEO

2012-01-31T17:40:37Z

A great post from Blogging Tips on the value of SEO for bloggers.

7 Tips to Build Quality Backlinks for Better SEO – Blogging Tips

According to data by Hitwise, an authority when it comes to online analytics, search engine traffic keeps on increasing every day, and some fields are even getting as far as a 20% increase in searches in a year, amidst the buzz about social media these days. SEO traffic has also been proven to be more effective than other sources of traffic over the years, and around 80% of visitors that land on your blog through a long tail search keyword are first time visitors.

via: www.bloggingtips.com

shared with Quotelove

The Ultimate Guide To Enterprise SEO: 25 Things To Know Before You Take The Plunge (searchengineland.com)
Keywords And Backlinks Importance (siliconvalleylatinoleadership.com)
5 Underused SEO Tips to Make Your Blog Uber-Successful (bloggingtips.com)
Six Essential SEO Strategies for Bloggers (buildabetterblog.com)

Guest Blog Post: How to Keep Your Blog from Being an Information Charity

2012-01-26T16:23:10Z

Image by the tartanpodcast via Flickr

In a recent post about bad blogging habits I touched on the subject of conversion. This is an important issue for any business blogger, so let’s examine it in a little more detail.

Every business blog should have a conversion plan. It’s really as simple as figuring out what type of response you’re looking for, and then crafting deliverables that visitors can act on. Strategic goals and deliverables are limited only by a blogger’s imagination; here’s a short list of possibilities to serve as a starting point for some brainstorming.

Strategic Blog Conversion Goals

Generating orders (sales)
Setting up meetings (lead generation)
Encouraging social shares (referrals, brand awareness)
Improving search rankings (SEO)

Conversion Deliverables

Order forms embedded in blog posts, limited time offers (sales)
Webinar scheduling, white paper downloads (lead generation)
Strategically placed social share buttons, social media contests (referrals, brand awareness)
Keyword research, content optimization (SEO)

The two points I want to stress:

Always have strategic conversion goals and deliverables to support them
Don’t rely solely on brand awareness and SEO — as so many bloggers do

Why do so many bloggers shy away from conversion and instead operate information charities, giving away great content and getting nothing in return?

Well, I can’t speak for other bloggers, but I can summarize the things that interfered with my ability to achieve business goals with my business blog, to develop a conversion mentality. Does any of it sound familiar?

Eliminate the Build-It-and-They-Will-Come Mindset

All content needs to be marketed, pushed, promoted. Big media outlets have big marketing budgets: if advertising is good enough for The New York Times, it should be good enough for us, too! The fact is there’s a wealth of great information being promoted online. It finally dawned on me that no matter how valuable my posts were, I’d have to compete for attention.

Overcome the Fear of Selling

Even though I have lots of sales experience, I feel awkward going into sales mode in social media — probably because social media is so informal, conversational and relationship-oriented. If I’m reluctant to push myself and my services, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for bloggers who have never sold anything. The best way I’ve found to overcome the fear of selling is to start doing it. Thinking about it doesn’t get you anywhere, but practice really does make perfect.

Package Up You Services

It took me a while to figure out how to bundle up my services into packages that can be effectively promoted on a blog. This involves things like writing and designing an attractive whitepaper for download, creating a polished presentation for a webinar, building out a formal, written training curriculum, etc. People are more inclined to say “yes” to a tangible, well defined product, service, or consultation. Calls to action that are vague, such as “contact us to learn more” or “let’s talk about your needs” don’t provide sufficient motivation.

Brad Shorr is Director of Content and Social Media for Straight North, a Chicago SEO and digital marketing agency. The firm specializes in helping middle market B2B firms, with clients that do everything from vehicle tracking devices to dust exposure monitoring. Brad has been blogging since 2005 and writes frequently on social media topics. Follow Brad on Twitter and connect with Brad on Google+.

Guest Blog Post – 7 Bad Habits for Business Blogging (zemanta.com)
Everything You Need to Sell Your Boss on Business Blogging (hubspot.com)
Social Blog Carnival: Getting the 411 on Social ROI (crm2.typepad.com)

Reblogged Vs. Retweet: A Case for the Former

2012-01-27T15:39:36Z

: Image via Wikipedia

According to Jeff Jarvis, a famous blogger, links are currency. “Links grant authority. Links build branding. Links equal value.” He wrote this almost 7 years ago. Since then, retweeting and later reblogging have become popular and most convenient ways of quoting others online. However, I strongly believe that reblogging adds more value and brings more credibility to you and your blog than retweeting. The impact of reblogging is usually more profound and long-lasting.

Some of our users may be familiar with our experiment with the ‘Reblog’ button; Tumblr facilitates reblogging and since 2010 WordPress has had an option to ‘Reblog this post’. Reblogging means to repost the content of another user’s post in our own blog post by adding our own comments; reblogging plays a double role: of social bookmarking and user commentary. That is how we build or expand a (meaningful) conversation.

And then there is an ever more popular retweet option on Twitter, which enables us to quickly share a tweet with all of our followers. However, Twitter has its limitations; tweets can only be 140 characters long. This prevents an (effective) expression of our thoughts about the content of the tweet we retweeted. At the end of the day, tweets are like sound bites: short, attention seeking and usually with a very short-term effect. Let’s not forget that Twitter resembles a 24-hour news program. Rarely anyone follows a Twitter thread 24/7, hence your retweets are going to be missed by many. According to 2010 research by Sysomos (they examined 1.2 billion tweets), more than 90 per cent of all retweets happen within the first hour of the original tweet being published. This means that if a tweet is not retweeted in the first hour, it is very likely that it will not be retweeted.

Retweeting may be more convenient, in many cases even a more spontaneous act of letting our followers know what they should read, listen to or watch on the Internet. It is a fast way of sending them to a specific link. A retweet option lacks an opportunity to expand on the link more thoroughly. And here’s where reblogging steps in.

Reblogging isn’t just a potent means of secondary content promotion, it makes quoting others easier and consequently we can expand on the reblogged blog post and continue/build the conversation. Our arguments aren’t lost by a “sound bite” and we can take time to argue our case. This is how we make ourselves more credible, no matter the topic or the nature of our blog. This means a higher added value and that is why I believe the effect of reblogging is much bigger and more profound than the effect of retweeting (but a combination of both is even better). And let’s not forget that critical thinking with developed arguments is beneficial to us all. Indeed, the humanity doesn’t evolve through sound bites.

What do you think? Do you agree with me? Disagree? What are your experiences with reblogging? Share your experience with us.

Reblogging is Back! (en.blog.wordpress.com)
What in the world is reblogging? (pinkbriefcase.wordpress.com)
How sharing disrupts media (blogs.reuters.com)
Why Tumblr is Good for Brands (progressivemediaconcepts.com)

Z-Blog

I Believe in the Power of Blogs: They Make Us Understand

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