Social media is about valuable communication. Of course, “valuable” is a subjective term, but typically refers to content which educates, engages, or entertains. Great content makes the difference between getting noticed and being ignored.
There are 3 main secrets for great content creation, especially when producing for the social web:
1) Listen to what your visitors want and need. Do you see questions coming up again and again within your area of expertise? If so, this highlights a need your visitors have. This happened a few times recently on Twitter, when a few different people asked for input on various WordPress plugins and techniques. I was able to respond to several of these, which helped me realize more about what kinds of questions people were having with WordPress. It also enabled me to learn something from others who responded to the requester. Great content is in the eye or experience of the user, and most often addresses a question, provides a solution, or moves the person to think differently about their current situation.
The best way to create great content using this principle is to keep track of the questions your clients ask most often, and creating content to meet this need. Another way to use this principle is to pay attention to the media and see what kinds of questions reporters are asking about. You can get reporter queries by using the free (and excellent) service at HelpAReporter.com. By monitoring what journalists are asking for, you know what kinds of questions people have and want answered.
And here’s another benefit: if you track what reporters are looking for, and create content around this, it not only adds to your blog, but it can quickly position you as an expert for future requests. I routinely publish blog posts based on interviews I give, and then use these to create instant credibility to get additional interviews.
2) The second way to create great content is to keep learning. I spend several hours per week taking in new ideas, reading up on new technologies, and improving my knowledge in several key areas. Not only does this keep me inspired (which is crucial to my personal happiness and productivity), but it also helps me speak intelligently about trends and emerging technologies, which boosts my expert status even further. This has been helpful in attracting and retaining clients, as well as helping me get out in front of the media. If you’re not making time each week to take in new ideas, do add this into your business development process. New ideas in means new ideas out.
3) Put parameters around your content production. I first read about this strategy in a book on thinking creatively. Basically, the process involves setting limits around an idea, and coming up with the most creative solution or outcome you can think of. So, for instance, I sometimes try and create the best blog post I can in 3 minutes or less. In this case, time is the limiting parameter. Research has shown that you come up with some of your most interesting ideas when you have two or more parameters in place.
This principle is demonstrated in the very popular “top 10 lists” and other similar content- people have asked a question: “How do I create great graphics for less than $10?”- and the two defining parameters are great graphics + low cost- and then they go searching for resources to meet these criteria. These kinds of lists and resource listings tend to be highly favored and widely repeated.
The whole goal of creating great content is to connect with your ideal market and create dialogue with them. Focus your tools, resources, and energy towards being interested and interesting.
You might just get a whole lot of people talking.
Dr. Rachna Jain is Chief Social Marketer at The Mindshare Corporation. Rachna works with speakers, consultants, authors, and small business owners to develop and execute effective social media marketing strategies. Her proprietary persuasive social media process (sm) focuses on building influence, credibility and visibility online. This translates into greater recognition, increased website traffic, faster lead generation, a shorter sales cycle, and more opportunity for her expert clientele. She blogs regularly at The Mindshare Blog
Category: How-To Guides
If you’re thinking of switching to VoIP service from a traditional landline based Key, PBX, or hybrid phone system, you’re not alone- businesses of all sizes are beginning to realized the cost-saving benefits of computer/telephony integration. Switching to a VOIP phone is relatively simple- changes can be made quickly and easily, and there is usually very little equipment to purchase.
Whether you’re switching to a business VoIP service or implementing a phone system for the first time, here are a few things you need to consider:
Internet Connectivity
VoIP phone systems use the internet to make and receive calls- you’ll need to make sure your connection and your power supply can support system requirements. Generally, a steady, uninterrupted power supply and a high-speed internet connection are all that’s needed. Your connection should be able to support the added traffic that the system will create. Vendors will ask how many employees will be using the system, how many calls are placed daily, and take into consideration features like auto attendant and call transferring when setting up your internet connection to support your system. You may need to purchase additional routers or install a backup power supply.
VoIP Adapters
If you’re witching to VoIP from a traditional phone system, you can save by purchasing adapters for your current phones. A traditional phone fitted with a VoIP adapter works identically to a VoIP phone. Most adapters are less than $50 each, and are often available in bulk discounts for larger offices. In lieu of adaptors, you can also purchase VoIP phones, headsets, or microphones that can be connected directly to a computer and used in place of a traditional headset. Most business and residential VoIP service providers sell both VoIP-compatible phones and adapters.
VoIP Phones
Voice over Internet Protocol phones are slightly more expensive that VoIP adapters, but are a good investment if you plan to use the system for several years. VoIP phones are easy to use and install- they don’t take any special training to set up. Once installed, they work identically to traditional phones. Most VoIP phones cost at least $100 each, with many vendors offering steep discounts for phones purchased in bulk.
Switching to a VoIP system takes surprisingly little time. Once you’ve decided to make the switch, you can shop around for providers and compare prices for services and equipment. Most providers can also make suggestions about system configuration (i.e., if you need a faster internet connection) during this stage. Once you’ve settled on a service provider and purchased equipment, you can have the new system up and running in less than a week.
About the Author
Merrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.
As an online business owner you know how important it is to build your list in order to have a ready pool of clients, potential clients, and customers who are interested in your business and your services/programs. But as a list owner you also have a responsibility to those people on your list to treat them well and build a relationship with them – it’s known as creating the like, know, and trust factor – and is crucial for sustaining a long-term business.
People will only work with those people who they like, know, and trust.
So, once you have started to get people onto your list, the next step is to build your relationship them and develop the like, know, and trust factor. Let me share with you my top 7 ways to do just that:
1. Publish when you say you will. It’s so important that you do exactly what you say you will when you say you will. The number one way list owners sabotage their own list-building efforts is by not publishing either when they said they will, or by not publishing on a regular basis. I recently had a phone call with one of my clients who hadn’t published her ezine on a regular basis over the past few months and she commented to me that she had seen a substantial decline in the click-thru open rates of her newsletter. This is just one of the side effects of not publishing on a regular basis – your audience will forget about you and are not eager to open your emails when they land in their inbox.
2. Be respectful of your subscribers’ time. Do not bombard your subscribers with emails – be respectful of their time and realize that they too probably receive hundreds of emails a day. Unless you’re currently promoting your latest program/product, in which case you may need to be in touch with your subscribers on a more regular basis, once a week is an ideal mix of staying in touch with your subscribers without bombarding them with emails. There’s nothing more of a turn off to a subscriber than when they receive constant emails from the list owner. As soon as someone starts emailing me on a daily basis (unless I’ve signed up for a daily e-course and I know that I am going to be receiving a daily email from them) I hit that unsubscribe button faster than you can say ‘unsubscribe’. I know that internet marketers state that you need to be in touch with your subscribers on a regular basis – but is daily really necessary?
3. Subscribers have signed up to learn more about YOU and YOUR business. Too often these days I receive emails from list owners promoting other peoples’ programs/products/services and, although I am aware of the strategy behind this, I really don’t want to know about the same program/product/service from four different list owners – and is it really worth upsetting your subscribers just to make a quick buck from using your affiliate link? Keep solo mailings for other peoples’ promotions to a minimum – you can even create a special ‘Recommends’ section in your own newsletter for these types of promotions. That way you can still be part of the joint venture opportunity but without upsetting your subscribers by sending out dozens of solo mailings. Remember, a subscriber has signed up to your list because they want to hear from YOU and you solve a problem for them.
4. Share some personal information. Let your subscribers get to know YOU as well by sharing a little bit of personal information or some photos about what’s happening in your life – just one or two sentences in each edition is all you need! Your subscribers will relate much better to you once they get to know the *real* you. You become a person to them rather than a faceless business owner and become someone whom they can relate to. This goes a long way in building the like, know, and trust factor.
5. Make your ezine a quick 30-second read. This leads me back to point 2 above. If you can make your ezine information-packed but in a format that is every easy on the eye and therefore can quickly be scanned by your reader, you are being mindful of their time and they will look forward to reading your newsletter each time. They know that they’re not going to have to wade through a ton of information just to get to the juicy bits!
6. Don’t overload your subscribers with too many calls to action. Some ezine publishers feel they have to include links to every single one of their products/programs/services in their newsletter and by doing so they completely confuse their reader who doesn’t know what to do or which link they’re supposed to click on – so what happens? Nothing! Your reader will not click on any of your links because they’re confused – and a confused mind always says no. Keep it simple in your newsletter – just offer one call to action in each edition.
7. Engage with your readers. If they’ve taken the time to respond to one of your articles by emailing you directly, email them back – even if it’s just a ‘thank you I’m glad you enjoyed the article’ type of email. This type of correspondence goes a long way to building a relationship with your subscriber because you are acknowledging the time they have taken out of their day to send you that email.
And one final point that I’d like to make, and this is the most important point, at the end of every email address is a real person. Always keep this in mind when preparing your newsletter and/or broadcasts and you will go a long way to building your relationship with your subscribers.
Categories
How To Make More and Work Less
Have you ever wondered how any business leader can transform a business or corporate department into a super efficient machine – a machine that will provide the freedom and income everyone dreams of? You might want to find out more from Sam Carpenter, author of the new book, ‘Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less’.
Winner of the “Best Non-fiction Book of 2009” at the New York Book Festival. this book is based on hard-and-fast reality in real life situations and describe an achievable plan for making more minutes count and freeing up more time for the meaningful things in your life.
You’ll pick up many useful tips on how to envision, design and implement new plans in your business and personal life so that you can regain control and not be always at the mercy of external forces.
Through a partnership with GetEntrepreneurial.com, Sam is pleased to offer all our readers the entire book in PDF format for free. To obtain your free copy of ‘Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less’, simply visit the book website at http://www.workthesystem.com and visit the promotional box or email info@workthesystem.com. Use the promo code “getentrepreneurial” in the email subject line to get your free copy now!
Be sure to also check out Sam’s online social networks; you can follow Sam Carpenter on Twitter or join the Facebook group here for some thought-provoking discussions.
Categories
How To Outmanoeuvre the Sharks
Article Contributed by Naz Daud
Should every small business owner have big ambitions?
Certainly almost anyone who enters into the world of the entrepreneur or starts up their own, whether based at home, the high street or the web, has dreams of becoming a future success. After all, every large high street store, every national or international chain and every top name on the web started out as a small, fairly obscure business once. However, how can any small businesses manage to succeed in a world that seems dominated by big brands, big names and colossal empires?
It can certainly frighten off many people who see the world of business like the ocean, with sharks round every coral reef, and danger lurking in the dark depths. Add to this the current economical climate with many seemingly secure names crumbling, and even entire nations finding themselves crippled, and many would be business owners may well consider that now is not the time to start up a new venture, or aim to develop an existing one.
However, this is a terribly defeatist attitude, and brings to the table so many assumptions and myths that those who believe them to be true may well never make it in business, whatever the climate and conditions, and whatever the competition. Let’s look at the truth, and see why these assertions are untrue, and why not only is the ocean not full of sharks, but the current economical climate makes it perfect for the small business entrepreneur to jump in and try the water for themselves.
To stretch out our metaphor just a little longer, so many people suggest that small businesses are almost doomed to failure because of the great sharks out there which dominate the waters of business. If this were true in the world of the sea, then there would be no fish and chips, no marine life, nothing except sharks. But if you swam the entire ocean you may very well never even come across one. The ocean is a big place, and the truth is that whilst sharks may be at the top of the chain, the ocean is still vast, the potential massive, and clearly there are ways to survive. The trick is, like the many fish that enjoy the waters, to stay alert, to keep your eyes open, to be able to adapt if necessary, and to manoeuvre more quickly and effectively.
How does this translate to the world of business then? Quite simply, small business owners have an advantage which the larger retail industries don’t have. Size may be good in some instances, but it can also be a handicap, and can reduce flexibility, manoeuvrability and adaptability. Small businesses can change, adapt and take advantage of current trends, new developments and niche markets in ways which the bigger businesses can’t.
An entrepreneur might see a possible niche market opening up as a result of search engine trends, a news story or forthcoming weather warnings, and instantly flood the market with content, links, pay per click adverts and search engine optimized content to take advantage of the possible market interest. Larger stores don’t always seem to have their online ear to the ground as it were in the same way, and can often find that reacting to changing markets may involve several boardroom meetings and management discussions before the action starts to happen.
Small businesses which can make full use of this adaptability and flexibility, reacting to developing opportunities as and when they happen can mean that they appear higher up the search engine results than many of the international corporations. However, what about the current economical situation? Surely the bigger businesses have a bigger buffer against such strains and pressures, making them dominate the market where smaller businesses may easily crumble?
Certainly, the world of finance isn’t being especially kind to many industries at the moment, but perhaps the aspect which has surprised most people is just how many of the leading brands, bigger companies and established businesses have begun to crumble. Many have gone into administration or left the playing field altogether, whilst others have sought rescue packages from the government. What of the pressures facing the small business then? Surely this isn’t any less significant?
Just as certain is the fact that the same pressures will be facing small business owners, but there are significant differences. The flexibility and adaptability comes into play again, with smaller businesses able to identify problems as well as opportunities that much quicker, steering out of the way of danger and moving into niche markets or promotion fields which may prove to be safer or more successful. Often the larger businesses only manage to stay competitive because of the huge financial risks and gambles which they take. That’s why many of the chief executives earn such vast sums of money – they are the ones whose heads roll if the decisions they make turn bad.
Starting up or developing a small business today means being perceptive enough to understand what markets work well at a time like this, and which don’t, what promotion strategies work well, and which don’t. Thinking from the point of view of the consumer can be easier for small business owners, and it is this which allows them to be more in touch with the emerging needs, markets and opportunities becoming available, leaving the international behemoths to plough forever onwards in an almost immovable path towards whatever lies ahead.
About the Author
By Naz Daud, the founder of the franchise City Local. This franchise opportunity is for people who would like to work from home and be their own boss.