Do you want to utilize social media to the best of its capabilities with your corporate blog? Here are ten secrets that the best social media users are utilizing in order to boost the capabilities of their blogs and other websites.

1 – Do your research!

Why? Because every single successful marketing strategy is based on solid research. You cannot go blindly onto a social media site and expect to get immediate success by submitting your content. Find social media sites that work well in conjunction with your niche.

2 – Interact with the community as much as possible.

Do not completely ignore the community as many social media marketers do , but instead get involved because this is what social media is really all about. Take advantage of the social nature of the platform and interact for better success in your corporate blogging and social media endeavors.

3 – Write FOR your audience.

If you want your content to be hot, and even viral, then you need to write for your audience on these social media sites. Interact with the community and get to know its members, learning about their likes and dislikes for example. Learn what gets the most attention and cater to it the best you can.

4 – Shoot for relevancy at all times.

Relevance is the true key to effective social media marketing. Look at Digg, StumbleUpon and other social networking and social media sites for proof of this fact.

5 – Keep your writing short.

Internet users do not tend to enjoy reading long text passages, preferring instead to scan anything that they are interested in. Be accommodating by keeping your content short.

6 – Good design.

When users come to your page, are they greeted with a design that is clean and welcoming in nature? If not, they may leave! To combat this, simply focus on presenting a good design and you will go far.

7 – Stop trying to make sales.

Another rookie mistake that is commonly made in social media marketing is to try ands ell your products. Promoting your brand is a good thing, but if all you are doing is pimping your products then you are never going to get any respect in the social networking world.

8 – Create Outstanding Headlines.

Your story may be excellent, but your headline is what sells. If you want attention when it comes to social media, you need to have an absolutely killer headline otherwise users will not notice what you are posting.

9 – Help Others Out.

If you want to become a top user or a popular user, you have to help others out rather than simply submitting and promoting the content that you write.

10 – Convert the hottest content.

Capitalize on hot content as often as you can. Make the attention that you garner last for as long as you possibly can by creating more posts to follow the hot ones so visits can read not only your popular post, but also your newer content as well.

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Originally posted 2008-11-18 05:37:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Professional Blogging Roundup: On RSS Feeds, PR, Writing Tips, and More Happy belated Thanksgiving. Did everyone enjoy their four day weekend? I know I did. The turkey was great. Here we are again with another edition of the roundup; lots of interesting things to read and think about! Corporate For some thoughts On Blogging, College Mogul, Drupal, and Acquia check out......
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If you have been thinking about jumping into the world of corporate blogging, but you’re not really sure if it’s right for you, this book may push you off the fence. This book does a fantastic job of explaining everything you could ever need to know about running your own blog, and running it well.

The book starts off with the author talking about how he was once pretty skeptical about the benefits of corporate blogging. However, his journey led him to believe that this is an incredibly effective means of communication. He then begins to lay the framework for anyone to start their own blog. We appreciated the brief history of blogging, but it did feel a bit like filler. However, for those that are completely new to the concept, this chapter will be pretty informative.

The chapters are very brief and easy to read. He makes his points well and doesn’t get too into any one point. It moves right along and covers the basics, or anything that a busy site owner will need to grasp to get started. We liked the fact that he spent a lot of time discussing the aspects of building a blog the right way and appreciated the section on blog hosting options. Again, for those completely new to blogging, this is essential information.

The chapters on blogging etiquette and how to write a great blog should be read more than once. They offer some really great tips that should not be ignored. Again, they are brief, but the author does a great job of getting his points across without skimming over the subject. The chapter on the relationship between your blog and your site is also very informative and covers all of the important points that you will need to know.

Our favorite chapter however was on the legalities of blogging. So few actually cover these points and they are vital if you are planning a blog. From the decency code to questions on what you should and should not cover, this chapter is worth its weight in gold.

He wraps up the book with some great case studies that show the power of corporate blogging in action.

Overall, we really appreciated the author’s style and the way that he got his points across. This was an easy read and it did a great job of really breaking down not only the way to get blogging but why it is so important. It’s a great inspirational book that will most likely inspire readers to try their own hand at blogging and that is what it is also about. Blogging is an incredible medium and has much to offer, and this book did a great job of explaining how to make it work for you. We highly recommend this book to any company owner, and to those that may already have their own blog. You’ll undoubtedly pick up some great tips within.

Originally posted 2008-08-29 05:48:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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(ie: should blog design match main site design?)

There are a lot of different considerations that need to be made when you are taking the initial steps to set up your corporate blog. For example, one of the first considerations that you should make is whether design integration is or is not important for your corporate blog. Should your blog design have the same design as your main site, or is there room for some creative license when setting up a site that is meant to be companion to your main site, but not necessarily part of the same website? The truth here is that either option is viable, as long as you are achieving what you intend to when designing the look and feel of your blog in its early stages on your website.

If your website has a distinct design that is classic and simple, then implementing it both on your main site and your blog site will add seamlessness for easy maneuverability, which is something that your readers will appreciate. As long as they can differentiate between the main website and the blog as they move from one to the other, there should be no underlying issues in creating a seamless design that remains the same from page to page. Because so many WordPress blog templates are designed to allow for extra pages, some corporate bloggers build the blog to spec and then add their main site around it, creating an entire blog and website combination from a single blog template. This is not the only option available to you however, so you should not feel locked into it.

On the other hand, as long as you keep a similar theme in place, there is no reason why you cannot create a website design and a blog site design that are unique to one another. If your website has a set of colors and a main graphical theme that is completely unique to your blog, you may be going for something a little too unique. However, design integration when it comes to hooking a blog and a website together does not mean using the exact same template twice – You can create an acceptable level of design integration simply by using the same images, the same basic color scheme or just a similar layout design. These small details will add up to show your readers that they are still on the same website while still making it easy for them to differentiate between your blog and your website, which can sometimes be beneficial to them.

The design details are ultimately up to you as you put your corporate blog together. What you should be aware of is the fact that both of these options have merit, and you can always add and change elements as you go to suit your style and to respond to comments from your readers. Your corporate blog and website do not have to have the same exact design implemented into both, but seamlessness can be nice when showing readers that the two sites have the same common goal.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-11-06 05:59:20. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Running a corporate blog can be quite time consuming, especially if you are new to blogging. Here’s a brief idea of what you can expect in terms of actual work and the time it will take to build a successful blog. The initial stages will be much more time consuming than the maintenance stages, but this should give you a good idea of what you can expect.

Setting up a Blog Site.

This can take a few days or longer, depending on the type of software you will be using and your design customization needs. Most people prefer to hire a designer to handle this, especially if they don’t have their own IT department. There will need to be a few days set aside for bug testing as well, to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Certain features for RSS and social bookmarking will need to be added, but these should not take too long to implement.

Writing Posts.

Depending on how fast you type and how well you’ve thought out your posts, writing each one may take a few minutes or a few hours. It’s a good idea to get a topic list together ahead of time to make it a lot easier when you have to write. This is very useful if you find that you have occasional writer’s block. You’ll just be able to refer to your topic list for some inspiration.

You will also need to decide how many posts you want to make per day as well as per week. Posting at least once daily can greatly increase your chances of a top search engine ranking and the more you post, the better off you will be. However, you will need to take into account the time for each post when scheduling this.

Managing Comments.

If you are allowing comments, but you need to moderate them, you will need to set aside some additional time for their approval. Again, this can take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how popular your blog is. If you’re dealing with a lot of spam comments that need to be deleted, this can further stretch out how much time you’re spending.

Promotion.

Lastly, you will need to take some time to promote your blog, either on your site or by submitting stories to social bookmarking sites. This shouldn’t take very long, but it will add a few minutes on each day.

As you can see, a blog can be labor intensive and it can be a full time job. If you don’t have the kind of resources to devote this much time to a blog, it is a good idea to hire a blog management service. They can assist you in allowing you to spend time working on your own business while they manage your blog for you. This is almost essential as your blog becomes more popular and requires more of your time.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2008-08-06 05:05:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Here are nine ways to make corporate blogging even easier for you. Writing your blog should be enjoyable and fun, rather than just a task you have no interest in doing. These some really great tools should help make blogging more fun and enjoyable for you rather than a chore or a task that you would like to enjoy.

1. AutoCopy

You can skip the manual copying and pasting by using AutoCopy. If you want to quote passages you find on the web, or reference other snippets, forget using Control/Command +C and Control/Command +V once you’re at the right place in the markup language. Instead, install the AutoCopy tool, a free FireFox extension found at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/383. It will allow you to select text to automatically add it to the clipboard, then will allow you to paste it by middle clicking anywhere while in FireFox.

2. CoLT

This will allow you to copy both links and their titles, making it easier than ever for you to use the links you want in your blogs. CoLT is the Copy Link Text Firefox Extension, available at http://www.borngeek.com/firefox/colt/download.html.

3. Reusable Post and Image Templates

If you tend to post in ways that are similar in structure, you might as well create reusable templates for images and posting. Wired has a guide for automating actions in Photoshop. You can also grab free templates for Blogger and Wordpress or use a variety of different CSS templates that automate the posting process significantly.

4. Blog Live using Jott

Jott is a neat voicemail to text service that can allow you to post the things you need even when you are on the go. Jott, available through http://www.jott.com is compatible with Blogger, Typepad, Tumblr, WordPress and Livejournal.

5. Text Replacement

Use text replacement to automate repetitive code in your blog postings. This is a lot easier than embedding a flickr photo manually, or creating a custom signature template or custom headline, then add a text replacement app to your arsenal. Some examples are Tester from Windows, Snippits for Linux and TextExpander for Mac.

6. Google Alerts

Google Alerts will allow you to get topic based post ideas sent your email inbox every day. This will allow you to laser focus in on the particular websites, blog posts, news stories and group posts that you are intending to find.

7. Spend Less Time Resizing

Blogs need imagines, but finding the perfect image in the perfect size can be time consuming. Use Photoshop or GIMP, or choose Picnik available at http://www.picnik.com to make this process a great deal easier and hassle free.

8. Foxmarks

You can keep your post ideas synchronized with Foxmarks, because posting fodder can be found all the time but you need a way to store it if you are not yet ready to post about it. Foxmarks can be found at http://www.foxmarks.com.

9. Tumblr

A tumblelog is a quick post blog that is powered using the Tumblr web application which makes posting anything you want a lot less intimidating than if you were to blog in the wide-open HTML space like Movable Type or Wordpress. Learn more about Tumblr at http://www.tumblr.com.

Originally posted 2008-11-13 05:22:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Why do some blog instantly become hits, while others languish without a reader to be found? Although the subject matter can play a big role in popularity, a lack of readership can be attributed to a lack of style in the blog. Since there is so much competition out there, you’ve got to work on creating a special hook that will keep your reader’s interested. This is the key to developing a corporate blog that will get noticed. Here are some tips on how to pick the right style hook for your blog.

1. The Funny Hook –

If you are a naturally humorous person, don’t be afraid to let your sense of humor shine through your posts. Granted, this is not the place to share off color jokes, but if you have a talent for wry, dry or witty writing, your blog can be a great outlet. If you can make people laugh while they are reading a corporate blog, that is a big accomplishment. Readers remember funny blogs right off the bat and they’ll want to return often to make sure they get their daily dose of funny. However, if you do not have a flare for comedy, this is not the best hook to use. The key is knowing whether or not you have the talent for being truly humorous. If not, there are plenty of other hooks that you can use.

2. The Newsy Hook –

This is the perfect hook for those that may have a drier writing style or for those that don’t feel comfortable cracking jokes all the time. If you have the time to spend monitoring news and breaking it on your corporate blog, you can develop a very devoted readership. It’s best to stick with news that is related to your corporate sector, but there may be times when you can push the envelope a little bit. Many blogs have taken off after they covered one item that was very popular. The readers will stick around if they like your style and the information you cover.

3. The Controversial Hook –

This hook should be used with care and only by those that are masters of PR and capable of handling controversy. The blogs that use this hook are probably the most popular, but there is a fine line to walk here. If you are worried about your company getting dragged through the mud, or if you have a board that you have to please, it’s best not to use this hook.

These are just a few examples of hooks that you can use to start creating that relationship with your readers. If none of them fit, then just let your personality shine through your posts. Being friendly and open can be a hook on its own and may actually create better results than all three of the above hooks combined. The secret is finding what works for you and your readers. Once you’ve got that down, the sky is the limit.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-09-03 05:20:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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One of the main reasons that many companies begin blogging is to help them attract new customers. With the use of SEO or search engine optimization, you can dramatically increase your overall discoverability on search engines and you should see an increase in the amount of traffic that your site sees. Let’s take a look at how you be an SEO success with your blog.

1. Use the right keywords.

Just as you should use SEO principles on your site, you will need to use the same ones with your blog. Make sure that each post contains keywords relevant to your site and your industry. Don’t use the same ones over and over again, branch out into the long tail words for your site. This will help increase your traffic and give you more opportunities to rank in the top 10, especially with more obscure keywords that are nevertheless popular.

2. Use the right titles.

Most times, your blog post title will be the text that your readers see when they find you through a search engine. You want to be able to pull them in with that title and convince them to click through. Make sure that your blog post titles are compelling and that they contain keywords just like the content. This is a great tip that not a lot of businesses use. It can really make a difference in your overall traffic.

3. Allow trackbacks.

Most blog applications will have a feature known as a trackback. This allows other sites to link back to you if they are discussing your posts. The more links you have coming into your site from other locations, the greater your chances are of getting a higher ranking. This is another technique that not many companies are aware of but it can make a very large difference in your rankings.

4. Publish frequently.

The more often you publish your blog, the better your chances are of getting indexed promptly. Search engine spiders don’t go to every site on the internet every day. They make a log of how often a site is updated and then crawl it every once in awhile if it does not publish a lot of new content. If you are publishing every day, you will be training those spiders to index your blog every single day. This gives you a chance to take advantage of hot keywords to get better rankings and as a plus side, you’ll get to see results a lot faster.

Sometimes, it takes a pro to get the right mix of the above techniques. It is a good idea to hire a blog management company that specializes in SEO if you are not familiar with this process. They can help you completely optimize your blog to ensure that you are getting more visitors and a better overall ranking. They can also speed up the amount of time that it can take to build up a readership by using SEO techniques.

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Originally posted 2008-07-29 05:23:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Ten Tips for Better Corporate Blog Traffic pt 3 It is basically what allows your blog to notify other blogs that they have been mentioned elsewhere on the internet. Track backs most commonly appear as blog comments, creating another link back to your blog in other blogs on the internet. Not only will this create new links to your......
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• 3 Steps to Increase Traffic to Blog This is part one in a three part series on the steps to increase traffic to blog. If you are looking for quick and simple ways to increase traffic to blog, or more involved ways with bigger returns, keep reading for some great information. 1 - Choose the right platform......

Although video content is lauded and championed as the future of the internet, there is still a lot of dissension over whether it has a place in corporate blogging. While there is no one clear answer to this, there are a few benefits that videos can bring, as well as a few downsides. Let’s look at each of these to help you determine whether or not your corporate blog can benefit from the addition of video.

Benefits

1. Increased interest.

If you have quality video content, this can only interest your readers and encourage them to keep coming back. Video content sometimes does a better job of getting your message across, and if you are producing your own videos, you’ll be getting the benefit of extra face time.

2. Increased consumer trust.

This really only applies if you are starring in your own videos. By putting a face with the posts, your audience will start to feel more connected with you. This is a double-edged sword however. If you are stiff in front of the camera, it won’t work well. If you’re a naturally engaging personality however, there are a lot of benefits to posting videos.

3. Taking advantage of viewer comprehension.

Text based comprehension is historically pretty low. That’s why advertisers usually rely on television or radio, since it takes advantage of visual and auditory senses. By providing your blog visitors with video postings, you will be able to take advantage of all three mediums, audio, visual and text based learning.

Downsides

1. Poor quality.

You should only post videos if they are high quality and enjoyable. If your videos have poor sound or the picture is distorted, it gives the impression that you are too cheap to get a good camera and sound system. This is not an impression that any company wants to give the public. If you’re going to do it – do it right.

2. User generated content.

If you are considered putting up user generated content, such as YouTube videos, you run a lot of risks. They may not be professional and they may provide yet again, the wrong impression of your company. Even if a video is the most viral creation ever made, that doesn’t mean it belongs on your site.

3. Not as discoverable.

Video posts will not be indexed by search engines the same way as text posts, so you are losing out on the opportunity to take advantage of more keywords. The key to beating this is to have more than just a video in your post. Write an introduction with keywords and commentate on the video. If necessary, provide a transcript to get more keywords into the post.

With the right approach, video is a great thing for a corporate blog. You just need to take the time and money to produce high quality videos and utilize the right posting structure to make sure that they get indexed. If you’re not ready to do this, it is best to wait and make the most of your blog the way it is.

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Originally posted 2008-09-18 05:53:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Spend a few weeks reading about search engine optimization and you’ll likely become obsessed with your Google page rank score. If you’re not familiar with this, it is a system employed by Google that determines the popularity of a site and then assigns a ranking to it. Many factors are used in calculating popularity, but generally, the amount of links, the frequency of new content additions and the overall traffic a site receives will have a major bearing on their Google page rank.

But does this really matter to your corporate blog?

The answer is yes and no, and it pretty much depends on how you look at it. While a low ranking can make it harder to get a good search engine results placement, it doesn’t make it impossible. However, if you are trying to take advantage of all of your promotional avenues, trying to raise your Google page rank is pretty important.

So, here are some easy tips that can dramatically affect your page rank score and as such, where you are ranked in search results.

1. Increase the amount of links coming in to your site.

These are called inbound links, but not just any links will work. You’ve got to have “quality” links that Google will approve of. This means that submitting to link directories or using black hat linking methods will not help you much. You need to increase the amount of real pages that link to you. You can do this the old fashioned way by contacting site owners to exchange links, or you can do it on your own by leaving your link in comment’s on blogs, sending out press releases and encouraging readers to link to your blog.

2. Page titles really do matter.

This is a huge factor in your overall Google page rank. You’ll want to make sure that you are using keyword rich post titles for every blog that you write. For example, Company News is a bad title for a blog post. You would want to use something like Company Name – Keyword and then News. Try to experiement with different blog titles, making them keyword rich but still useful for your readers.

3. Using keywords in your posts.

Every post you make needs to have keywords in it, but you don’t want to go overboard. Stick with mentioning your primary keywords two to three times, unless your posts are very long. The best density is around 3 to 4%.

If you are curious to see how your efforts are paying off, we recommend installing the Google toolbar which will contain your current page rank when you visit your own site. You can keep track of your progress this way and see how well you are doing. It won’t happen overnight, but these tips will help you improve your overall page rank and as such, your search engine rankings, blog discoverability and the overall popularity of your site.

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Originally posted 2008-09-25 05:16:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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You want your blog to be engaging, but that may not always be easy. Here are some great tips on how to keep your corporate blog reader friendly.

1. Pick your design well.

One of the biggest problems for corporate blogs is design. You can need to make sure that your blog is easy to read. This means sticking with simple backgrounds, regular text and a dark font. While black backgrounds may look nice for a blog, they are hard to read off of and your customers won’t appreciate having to strain their eyes. Shoot for a very neutral palette that is very easy to read on.

2. Don’t bore them to tears.

Sometimes, corporate news can be a bit boring to the average consumer. Try to change up your posts so that they are not continuous dronings that would put even the most die hard fan to sleep. Add fun elements such as polls to keep your readers engaged and willing to come back each day for more.

3. Talk to your readers, not at them.

One of the worst mistakes you can make is sounding like you are pontificating. Try to develop a writing style that is engaging so that you are talking to your readers not at them. This may take a little practice but in time you’ll be able to develop the right kind of writing style for your audience.

4. Always publish regularly.

Once you have a posting schedule stick to it as closely as possible. This may not always happen, but really make an effort to be a dependable blogger. You won’t have to worry about your readers losing interest and failing to come back since they never see anything new.

5. Try to run a few fun contests.

One of the best ways to make sure that your readers are engaged is to run a contest. Offer a free giveaway or something similar to all of your readers. You can have them place their entries in the comments section of your blog.

6. Allow comments.

Today’s blog readers want to be able to interact with you and this means allowing comments. If you are worried that things may get out of hand, use a moderation feature which will allow you to preview all the comments before they go live on your site. This gives you the best of both worlds and will make your blog much more fun to read.

7. Have a little fun.

While it is important to be professional, you don’t need to be dreary. Don’t be afraid to change things up every now and again to keep your readers guessing. This will help increase your daily visits and your readers will want to check back more often.

These are just a few tips that can help you create a very reader friendly blog. You may also need to work with a blog management company to increase your readers and to stay on target with your goals.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-07-02 05:41:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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