Social Media Coach Blog

Online Strategy Tips for Business Owners

13
Feb 12

How Do I Blog Successfully?

Geoff Evans

I work with many different business owners from a lot of different industries. One of the most common questions I receive from all of these people is: How do I blog successfully?

There are so many questions that people have about blogging:

What is a blog?
Why should I blog?
What should I blog about?
How long should my blog be?
How often should I blog?
What do I do if I’m a terrible speller or writer?
Why aren’t people reading my blog??

The list of questions, of course, goes on and on. In my Blog workshops I talk about the importance of leveraging a blog holistically as part of an overall vision for online success. A blog will not, in and of itself, drive bottom-line results.

A blog can play a variety of roles within your business: build your credibility, establish rapport, create trust, and demonstrate knowledge. A blog can be leveraged to create new client opportunities or simply to improve your search engine optimization.

The approach you take with your blog needs to begin with your business goals in mind.

If you want to enhance your company’s Google results, for example, then part of your goal is to increase traffic to your website. This means that you want to appeal to a diverse audience to maximize visitors. To reach a very broad audience I might share tips on Facebook security. Of course, this topic doesn’t guarantee that my target audience of business owners will read my blog. So, from a targeted client building standpoint this approach would not be effective.

If I want to create opportunities to connect with potential clients then I need to understand the challenges, issues, and questions that this audience is likely to have. When I write a client-focused blog my #1 rule is to always begin with the question in mind. If my blog isn’t answering a question that my audience is likely to have then people won’t be interested. A blog isn’t a marketing brochure and it won’t be successful if your only consideration when writing the blog is: will this motivate people to spend money. Your intentions must be in-line with the needs of potential clients.

The two most important things you can do to build a successful blog are 1) truly understand your objectives for leveraging a blog and 2) truly understand the needs, wants, desires, and challenges that your ideal clients face. This knowledge will guide you down the path of creating relevant and focused blogs that help you achieve bottom-line results.

If you live in or around London, Ontario and would like hands-on instruction to learn how to make the most of a blog for your business then feel free to check out my upcoming blogging workshops.

Geoff Evans, Founder of Social Media Coach

10
Feb 12

Facebook Advertising in Photo Albums

Geoff Evans

Well, it's official. Nothing is sacred to Facebook anymore - including your personal photos.

I theorized in a recent newspaper column that Facebook’s drive to an IPO would mean a greater need for revenue and, in turn, a greater abundance of ads incorporated into Facebook. I just never thought they’d use our own photos to accomplish this!

You may have noticed a recent design change to Facebook photo albums. In order to make the description and comments connected to a photo easier to read Facebook has added a side bar:

Of course, wouldn’t you know it, in many instances there is just enough room beneath these comments to include some wonderful sponsored ads:

So, now pictures of our children and photos of our vacations are perfect advertising billboards. Unfortunately there are no settings that allow you to prevent Facebook ads from being incorporated wherever Facebook sees fit.

I can’t wait for phase 2… “Geoff Evans’ Timeline is brought to you by Starbucks.”

Geoff Evans - Founder, Social Media Coach

25
Jan 12

LinkedIn Shares Your Information with Advertisers

Geoff Evans

Well, it appears that LinkedIn has taken a page from Facebook with respect to privacy. While surfing around the LinkedIn site building training videos I stumbled across a couple of settings that I hadn't noticed before: Manage Social Advertising and Manage Partner Advertising.

It wasn't that long ago that I wrote a blog about Facebook settings that allowed your name and photo to be included in 3rd party advertising. In a follow up blog I discussed how Facebook is tracking the online activity of users who remained logged into Facebook while they were surfing the internet.

It appears that LinkedIn has now ventured down a similar path to Facebook.

In an explanation of the first setting which is labeled Manage Social Advertising, LinkedIn explains that it may "sometimes pair an advertiser's message with social content from LinkedIn's network in order to make the ad more relevant". So, when LinkedIn members recommend people and services, follow companies or take other relevant actions their name and/or photo may show up in an advertisement shown to LinkedIn members.

As I recall, when I first visited this setting the default setting allowed LinkedIn to use my name and photo in social advertising - something I never would have willingly elected.

The second setting I noticed is labeled Partner Advertising. In this particular instance LinkedIn works with partner websites to show advertisements to LinkedIn members. What makes this a privacy concern is that the partner advertisers are given access to information from your LinkedIn profile such as your industry, job function, and seniority level in order to target you with very specific ads.

Of course, some folks appreciate that the advertising actually speaks to them directly. In that case there's nothing further for you to concern yourself with. Others, like myself, aren't as appreciative of the "Minority Report"-esque approach to advertising. In that case you might wish to follow my instructions for deactivating these two LinkedIn features so you can regain your privacy.

To start, you'll need to access your LinkedIn Settings in the upper right corner of the LinkedIn website:

Once you've accessed the settings section in LinkedIn you can select the "Groups, Companies & Applications" tab in the bottom left corner (PLEASE NOTE: this location just recently changed from the "Account" section as illustrated below). Within the Groups, Companies & Applications tab you will see two options listed under "Privacy Controls": Manage Social Advertising and Manage Partner Advertising:

(AGAIN: A recent change has re-labelled these sections as "Turn on/off data sharing with 3rd party applications" and "Manage settings for LinkedIn plugins on third-party sites")

By clicking on each privacy setting individually you'll have the opportunity to deactivate the settings. Under Partner Advertising you will remove the check mark beside "LinkedIn may show me ads on its partner websites":

Under Manage Social Advertising you will remove the check mark beside "LinkedIn may use my name, photo in social advertising":

If you'd like to continue being updated with relevant social media tips like this you may wish to sign up for my monthly newsletter.

Geoff Evans (Founder, Social Media Coach)

06
Jan 12

The Biggest E-Newsletter Mistake in Business

Geoff Evans

An effective e-newsletter can be a powerful marketing tool and a great way to establish trust and credibility with potential future customers. I can say from first hand experience that my e-newsletter has led to new clients and new revenue.

However, the biggest mistake I regularly observe is businesses adding people to their e-newsletter mailing list without permission – or even the slightest indication that the individual is remotely interested in the businesses products or services.

Just because you had an online LinkedIn conversation with someone – or even became a LinkedIn connection – doesn’t mean the individual wants to receive your e-newsletter. Many people don’t like to receive information in this format! You have to allow people to consume information in a way that is most meaningful to them.

Building a distribution list of 500 or a 1000 or even 10,000 email addresses is meaningless if most of the recipients never asked to receive your newsletter. I find myself continuously being added to e-newsletters I never subscribed to. Please, have a conversation with me and ask me if I’m interested in subscribing – otherwise you are not only wasting my time you are wasting your time. And the issue is greater than just the mild irritation of receiving yet another email in my inbox that I didn’t ask for - more importantly you are damaging your brand. Each time your email pops up uninvited in an individual’s inbox he or she is likely thinking: “SPAM!” And I can assure you that is not establishing a positive brand identity.

And don’t confuse someone opening your e-newsletter with someone actually being interested in it. I’ve talked with business owners who were convinced that adding every contact to their e-newsletter mailing list has been a successful strategy because many of these recipients open the email. Uh huh.

From first hand experience I can tell you that as I’m cruising through my inbox I often open emails, quickly realize it’s an e-newsletter I didn’t subscribe to, and then immediately delete the email. The statistics of the e-newsletter will indicate that I’ve opened the email – falsely leading the business owner to believe the email was successful.

However, the real measure of success with an e-newsletter is what people do when they open the e-newsletter. Are they clicking on hyperlinks? Are they contacting you for more information?

Having 50 qualified and interested subscribers to your e-newsletter is FAR more valuable than having 500 who don’t care. It’s the same rule for Facebook Friends, Twitter Followers and LinkedIn Connections… we all get caught up in the numbers game but reality (and results) should tell you something entirely different.

To position yourself for e-newsletter success you must invite people to sign-up for your e-newsletter or ask their permission to be added to your distribution list. This approach will position you for the greatest e-newsletter results.

Geoff Evans, Founder of Social Media Coach

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01
Dec 11

Is Your LinkedIn Newsfeed Filled with Useless Updates?

Geoff Evans

I had a friend recently ask me why nobody commented on or ‘liked’ her LinkedIn status update. I explained that there was a very low likelihood that people even saw her update in their newsfeeds. LinkedIn’s newsfeed can often feel like a vast wasteland of meaningless updates.

By default, the LinkedIn newsfeed updates you on everything from the new connections people are making to profile changes – “Betty added X to her profile”. To some people this is useful while to others this is annoying.

Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn does nothing to try to create a meaningful newsfeed experience. LinkedIn is counting on people to participate in Groups if they actually want to find and share information. Alternatively, you could use LinkedIn’s “Signal” to search through status updates in order to find useful information.

What people don’t realize is that they can completely control what type of content appears in their LinkedIn newsfeed so it can be as useful to them as possible. To edit the content you see in your LinkedIn newsfeed access your LinkedIn settings:

Once you’ve logged into your settings you can change many different features of LinkedIn. In order to change your newsfeed you will select the “Account” Section and click on “Customize the updates you see on your home page”:

From within this section you can deselect all of the information that you do not find helpful or beneficial:

Depending on your unique objectives for participating in LinkedIn you might find certain updates more valuable than others. Once you’ve selected the relevant options you can “Save Changes”.

Now, if only there was an option to delete all of the damned Twitter Tweets people automatically share with LinkedIn – if I wanted to read their tweets I’d follow them on Twitter!

Geoff Evans, Founder of Social Media Coach

For more social media hints & tips sign up for our newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn...

Social Media Coach Blog

Online Strategy Tips for Business Owners

How Do I Blog Successfully?

Facebook Advertising in Photo Albums

LinkedIn Shares Your Information with Advertisers

The Biggest E-Newsletter Mistake in Business

Is Your LinkedIn Newsfeed Filled with Useless Updates?

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