» Blogging

RePurposing a Blog

Pam Snell — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:45:32 +0000

As I was reviewing a website for a redesign proposal the other day, I was going to suggest that the client add a blog to their website.

I know, I rolled my eyes too! Not another blog lecture! In the case of blogs, I’m a “do as I say, not as I do” gal because I haven’t updated my blog in months! All it gets is spam replies and it’s not pulling it’s weight. What’s worse – this very column could be an excellent blog post and I wouldn’t have to do anything but copy and paste it in!

Well, I had a revelation that EVERY client could take advantage of and it would benefit their website greatly: Don’t think BLOG, think ANNOUNCEMENTS!

How often have you wanted to post a quick message on your website? Just a few lines or maybe more:

“We are closed today for the holiday”

“Please welcome Jane to our team! Her extension is 209 and she’s happy to help you!”

“The winner of this week’s trivia contest is…”

“This week only – SALE! All Christmas ornaments half price!”

And, remember that they search engines love a blog – your postings could attract more activity to your site!

In another vein, don’t think BLOG, think CALENDAR! You can have a self updated calendar added to your website using Wordpress technology! Simple, efficient and all yours!

Think of all the uses that would fit your business! Give us a call, tell us what you’d like. For most websites, it will only cost $95!

It only takes a minute to get a new marketing idea so..

Let’s Get Business!

Write That Blog!

Pam Snell — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:31:34 +0000

GemORama owner Carl Sarney sells beads and gemstones at wholesale prices and asked me to come in and take a look at their new website and offer them any tips to maximize their marketing. It took them a year to get their shopping cart website up and running and it was worth every minute – the site is GREAT! The bulk of work has been done by Suzanne in his office and she has taken wonderful photos of beads, pearls, crystals and other products with excellent detail and color.

I spent over an hour talking about what would enhance their site. They have a newsletter and we talked about frequency and content. Carl got especially excited about writing a blog. This is a family owned business with a close-knit staff. They love to talk to their customers and the out-reach of a blog will not only keep customers thinking of them, it will also attract the search engines to the site with Carl’s wise use of keyword phrases in the content.

I can’t wait to see Carl’s first blog posting. He’ll be able to write about buying trips and new products that he and his wife Joyce bring back on a regular basis. This fits right in with “Week 3″ of our 12 week Marketing Challenge – Write that BLOG!

Twitter For Business

Pam Snell — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:31:59 +0000

Up until 10 days ago, I thought that Twittering was a way of twittering away your time and I am far too busy for that! What changed my mind? David and I were in Nashville for a 3 day marketing conference with our peers from across the country and the talk around the table was how much business they were getting from Twitter (and Facebook!) We were astounded!

Dan Hollings, a search engine optimization superstar and Twitter Genius was one of the headline speakers at the conference and he spoke for 2 hours on Search Engine Optimization and, especially, Twitter!

How can you use Twitter for your business? Well, we are already doing it for our clients’ benefits by announcing our website updates to our social networks. That way, we are getting their information out to our circles of friends and clients. And, we are emailing our clients when we update their sites, as usual, but adding that we have “Tweeted” their update with a link to our accounts so they can check us out, connect to us and grow our network. Who knows, it may spur someone to use purchase from one of our clients.

David sends out an announcement when he updates his blog with breaking techical news. He also “Tweets” when he posts his ACTSmart article to support his 95.9 WATD radio spot on Tuesday mornings.

I know that no one cares what I had for breakfast. I do think that they might like to know when the Boys & Girls Club Golf Tournament online registration is available, or that Veronica’s Sweetcakes can create a cake for your event that is as spectacular as the “Ace Of Cakes” guy on the FoodNetwork! This is useful stuff delivered in 140 characters.

Check out Twitter for yourself!

Getting into blogging

Pam — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:20:44 +0000

I’m getting into blogging! It’s becoming easier and I think about articles for my blog all the time.

What’s made it easier is that I think of the blog as an email being written rather than a formal article to be published. When I recommend to my clients that they blog, I suggest that they make it casual and friendly rather than strictly business. The popularity of blogging, in part, comes from their ability to interact with the business by giving it more approachability.

I recently watch a seminar on Hubspot about Blogging For Business. To access this webinar yourself, you simply have to log into to http://www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-webinars-download and you’re able to download the entire hour long presentation. These folks even have a blog monitoring program in their tools that they offer. We’re clients of Hubspot ourselves to monitor our search engine standings, etc.

I’ll let you know how we are doing as we see the reports come through and what changes we are making for improvement.

Consider this: Let me suggest that you start blogging. It’s great for the search engines and it gives you a “friendlier” line of open communication with your customers. If you don’t have a blog set up, give us a call and we’ll set one up and get you started for only $100.