The Caffeinated Blog

Need Content? Your Community Are Your Best Writers

It should be evident to you at this point (at least, I hope so) that content needs to be at the heart of your online marketing strategy, beating healthily and pumping life through the veins of your website.  Consumers have so much information at their fingertips, and they are the ones in control.  They're reading articles, reviews, case studies, and blogs.  They're listening to podcasts and watching webinars and videos.  You should be delivering the information to your prospects and customers that enables them to make a highly informed decision about your products - and this goes beyond product descriptions.

Many companies decide to hire full-time or freelance content producers to write articles, maintain the blog, and even create multimedia content like videos and webcasts.  This is definitely the way to go, and certainly something you may want to consider.  But here's another tool in your content toolbox that you may not have considered: your community. 

Some of your best content can actually be produced by your own customers or members of your online community - just by asking for it.  This is known as user-generated content, but I like to call it community-generated content.  It's prevalent on product review sites and forums; but you can integrate community-generated content on your site in a number of ways.  Not only is it great just for the content itself; but for the valuable data you can glean from it for your business.

Community-generated content should not be your only content marketing strategy.  I recommend using it as a supplement to original content produced in-house (like case studies, articles, white papers, etc.).  Here are a few ideas for how your community can create quality content for your site:

• As research for a blog post or article, ask a question on LinkedIn or other Q&A sites.  I did this for my recent post 31 Must-Read Online Marketing and Social Media Books.
• Create a blog post where you ask readers to post comments with their opinions about a specific topic.  Use their opinions to create another blog post.
• Ask a question on Twitter.  Use the answers as part of a blog post. Chris Brogan did an awesome job with this back in October when he asked Twitter followers "If Oreo cookies wanted a social media engagement to sell more cookies, what would you sell them?"
  
• Ask customers to contribute blog posts or articles about a topic relevant to your industry, products, etc.  Better yet, hold a contest (check out how Viscape did just that).

Do you have any ideas?  How have you implemented community-generated content into your website?

Are You Helping Terrorists by Using Twitter?

My husband is an IT project manager, and he doesn't think a whole heckuva lot about Twitter (to put it simply and mildly).  So when he forwarded an article to me entitled Helping the Terrorists and written by author and BT's Chief Security Technology Officer Bruce Schneier, I rolled my eyes thinking it was going to be yet another one of those dire articles from IT security specialists about how social media sites like Twitter aren't secure and cyber-terrorists could use it against us.

I was wrong.

It was exactly the opposite.  As one of the world's foremost information security experts, Bruce was actually taking a stand against all those doomsdayers who want to scare us back into the Stone Age because every piece of technology we use every day is helping the terrorists (including Google Earth, Skype, cell phones, open wi-fi, chat room, library computers, and cars), so by using these things we're in turn helping the terrorists.  The purpose of his article was not to warn us against the dangers of technology; but to make us all take a step back and look at the big picture.  We can't stop using Twitter, Google Earth, and wi-fi just because terrorists are using it, and I think he put it best by saying "Terrorist attacks are very rare, and it is almost always a bad trade-off to deny society the benefits of a communications technology just because the bad guys might use it too."

So, all I have to say is thank goodness we have this voice of reason to let us know that yes, it is OK to use Twitter, and no, you're not helping the terrorists by using it.  You're helping them by not using it.

Whole Lotta Link Love Friday, February 12

It may be Friday the 13th, but luckily I've managed to find plenty to share with you today.  Let's dive right in:

• Probably the biggest news this week in the world of social media is that Twitter is going to start charging businesses for commercial use.  I suppose this was inevitable - but tell me what you think by leaving a comment below.
• Speaking of brands on Twitter (or, rather, not on Twitter): Janet Meiners wonders why the world's most popular brand, Coke, isn't on Twitter.  Plus, she offers her own tips for engaging people on Twitter.
• How do you engage people in 140 characters or less?  Jon Wuebben offers some really great tips for "copywriting" on Twitter over at the Content Rich blog.
• Jacob Morgan explores why many CMOs are not tracking social media and word-of-mouth.  Is there a lack of understanding? Too much focus on tools and methodology?
• Smashing Magazine showcases a gallery full of clever and cool-looking 404 error pages.  My favorite is from ApartmentHomeLiving.com.  Which one is your favorite?
• Here's my Valentine's Day gift to you: a free download of the Love ebook, which is a lovingly assembled a collection of poems "to spread happiness & positivity and to make a difference for people struggling with the recession." You can also make a donation to Career Gear, which provides skills training, interview clothing and relationship building to help men find (and keep) jobs.

More Must-Read Books: Email Marketing

After I posted 31 Must-Read Online Marketing and Social Media Books, which was cultivated from recommendations made to me through LinkedIn groups, I kept receiving more recommendations.  I couldn't not write about those, because there are so many different books out there that work for different folks.

Today I have 4 more books about email marketing that were recommended to me - and perhaps they'll work for you:

Permission Based Email Marketing that Works by Kim MacPherson

Email Marketing By the Numbers: How to Use the World's Greatest Marketing Tool to Take Any Organization to the Next Level by Chris Baggott

The Complete Guide to E-mail Marketing: How to Create Successful, Spam-free Campaigns to Reach Your Target Audience and Increase Sales by Bruce Brown

The Practical Guide to Email Marketing: Strategies and Tactics for Inbox Success by Jordan Ayan

What email marketing books do you recommend?

 

10 Tips for a Successful Blogger Outreach Campaign

With more than half of blog readers saying that blogs influence their purchase decisions, it's no wonder that many companies are eager to generate some buzz about their products on blogs.  Unfortunately, it doesn't happen magically.  In order to get the attention of these influential bloggers, companies have to reach out to them and make themselves known - but in a meaningful way. 

This is not easy.  It takes time and effort to put together a blogger outreach campaign; but if you do it right, your efforts will reap rewards in the form of increased exposure, positive recognition, and more sales.

Here are 10 tips that I've put together based on my own experience conducting blogger outreach campaigns:

1. Identify the right blogs: You obviously want to find blogs that are the right fit for what you’re offering in terms of content and target audience.  Use blog directories and search engines, as well as conversation monitoring tools, to find these blogs.  Compile a list with the blog names, URLs, where you found the blog, name of the blogger, and their email address.
2. Read the blog:  The blogger wants to see that you’re paying attention to what their blog is about.  Read a few of their posts to get a feel for their subject matter.  Participate in discussions by commenting on posts, if you can.  Get to know them before sending your pitch, as this will be the foundation of your relationship.
3. Make it personal: It’s OK to come up with a boilerplate message to send out, but make sure to personalize it as much as possible.  Of course, you’ll want to integrate the name of the blog and the blogger; however, take it a step further by mentioning where you found the blog and/or a specific post that caught your interest.  I also recommend AGAINST using an email marketing platform to broadcast your message to a list.  No matter how many personalization parameters you insert, it just won't work as well.  I know sending individual messages takes a lot of time; but it will be well worth it in the end.
4. Explain the benefits: Why should this blogger promote your offering for you?  Why would his audience be interested?  What makes your offering valuable?  These are all questions you should be answering in your pitch.  This is where all the homework you do beforehand by reading the blog will come in handy.
5. Be transparent: Don’t be dishonest in representing yourself.  Tell them who you are, including your title.  If you’re with a PR firm or marketing agency, make brief mention of it at the beginning (i.e. “[Company name] is a client of our agency, and I’m reaching out to you today…”) and include in your signature the name of the company and the name of the agency.
6. Make yourself available: Let the blogger know that you’re available to answer their questions, and include your email address.  Respond to any questions they have in a timely matter or schedule phone conversations, if necessary.  It’s also a good idea to include links to your social media profiles (like Twitter), either for yourself (if you are representing your own company) or for the company.
7. Be ready for negative feedback: You may get some less-than-positive responses to your emails.  Because of this, have a response plan in place if this should occur.  Here are some tips for dealing with negative feedback.
8. Keep track of responses: As you receive replies from bloggers, make sure to keep track of everything on a spreadsheet (how they responded, if they published a post, questions they had, bounced messages, etc).  Not only will this help you track results of your outreach campaign; but it will also give you something to work from for future campaigns.
9. Don’t spam:  I recommend sending one email, and maybe a second one to those who don’t respond (but make the second message different from the first).  If you find that certain bloggers just aren’t responding, then leave them alone. 
10. Thank them for posting: Make sure to thank any bloggers that do publish a post about your offering – with an email and/or a comment on their post.

So am I missing anything here?  What are your experiences with blogger outreach and what tips would you offer?

Whole Lotta Link Love, Weekend Edition

Well, I have to apologize first off for not posting as often the last few weeks (and missing Whole Lotta Link Love the last couple of weeks).  Can I make it up to you with a weekend edition? 

Lots of links to share, so let's get to it!

• Stephen Fry is one of my favorite comedians - and one of my favorite Twitterers.  He's one of the few celebri-tweeters that really get social media, and he talks about it on his blog, on TV, and even has an impromtu Twitter talk show while stuck in an elevator!
• Speaking of Twitter, here is a list of 7 URL shortening services that are great for business usage.
• Everyone is talking about the down economy, and more and more people are affected by it as they lose their jobs.  Many of the recently unemployed are using social media, including blogs, as a job-hunting tool - but are they effective?  Here's an article that talks about the pros and cons of using a blog to find a new job.
• Many companies that are feeling the pinch of the recession are cutting back on marketing or trying to monetize their content assets.  What they don't realize is that offering something for free could actually boost sales - just look at how Monty Python did it.
• Desperate times call for more...well, creative measures.  Take a look at these 10 examples of creative Twitter usage by companies, colleges, and regular people.
• When it comes to personal branding and online reputation management, there's a right way to do it (by following these 11 rules of personal branding), and a wrong way to do it (as demonstrated in this Dilbert cartoon).

Have a great rest of your weekend, everyone!

Your Congress on YouTube

Ever since the election of Barack Obama back in November, and subsequently his inauguration, there's been a lot of chatter (and twittering) about our government becoming more transparent.  After all, President Obama's use of social media during his campaign seemed to make him more accessible and made us feel like we could actually help him to shape policy in Washington. 

Now, even though we haven't heard from him on Twitter since January 19th, he and members of his administration have posted weekly addresses and messages on YouTube on the White House Channel.  In my opinion, I think this is great.  I wouldn't necessarily call it transparency (we're never going to get that - it's US government); but he's making use of a popular medium outside of television to spread a message.  So, the executive branch is on YouTube, so what about the legislative branch.

Um, yeah.

The official YouTube channel of the US House of Representatives is called HouseHub.  I checked it out, and I did find some interesting stuff on there.  Different representives (and senators) have their own channels, and in their videos they talk about issues that matter to them and what they plan to do.  Some of these videos stir up some good discussion and debate in the comments (check out "Meet Senator Sanders" on Vermont senator Bernie Sanders' channel).  But others, well, don't give me too much hope.  Here's a prime example:

Was I just rickrolled by Nancy Pelosi?  And her cats?

So, what do you think?  Are congress's YouTube efforts a big step forward, or a big waste of time (for them and us)?