The Caffeinated Blog

4 Things the Democratic Convention Taught Me About Content Writing

This week, I've been completely swamped.  I really didn't think I'd have the time to post this week, and I was starting to feel quite guilty about it.  However, I've been engrossed in watching the Democratic National Convention, and - hey presto! - I'm inspired to write.

Listening to a great deal of the rousing (and not so rousing) speeches made this week, I started thinking about how similar speechwriting can be to content and copy writing.  Here are my thoughts:

1. Always be audience-aware.  Bill Clinton has always been extremely "camera-aware" - he knows that the world is watching, and says and does things that will make him look a certain way to his audience.  An excellent example of this is when he mouthed "I love you" as Hillary made her "I support Barack Obama" speech.  When copy writing, you must be audience-aware – know who you are speaking to, and say the right things to make them do what you want them to do (buy your product, inquire about your services, subscribe to your RSS feed, etc.).
2. Make it interesting and engaging.  While many speakers bored many of the attendees to tears and were ignored by the attending TV media, Montana governor Brian Schweitzer brought the crowd to their feet with his rousing speech targeting “petro-dictators” and ending with “That’s it, baby! Let’s go win this election! God bless you! God bless America!”  If your content is not interesting or engaging, no one is going to pay attention to it.  Even if you've optimized and promoted the hell out of it, it will just get clicked away from if it’s simply too boring to read.
3. Talk about a problem, then present a solution.  The entire convention has been about the problems with the current administration, the adverse ways average Americans have been affected, and how McCain will just be "more of the same"  What’s the solution?  Barack Obama, because he represents "change for America".  The same thing goes with writing copy for your website.  Prospects won’t convert into sales or subscriptions if your product or service doesn’t help them solve a problem they have.  You must address that problem, then tell them why your product will solve that problem.
4. Hit emotional points.  Did you watch Ted Kennedy's speech?  There was hardly a dry eye in the house.  Not only was his phenomenal recovery from a brain tumor enough to reduce delegates to tears, but his speech about better healthcare for all Americans was pretty emotion-inducing as well.  Find out what makes your audience emotional – either what moves them to tears and to sympathize with a certain situation, or what excites them and makes them happy.  Think of creative ways to touch those emotional points through your copy and rally them behind your product.

What other ways can political speeches be likened to writing copy and content, and how can we learn from them?  Tell me your thoughts!

Whole Lotta Link Love Friday, August 22

Gotta love a busy day...I had so much to do today, I almost forgot it was Friday!

Better late than never, here are the latest and greatest links that are fit to feed:

1. Here's a really interesting (and sensible) approach to content writing - like an Italian sandwich.
2. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "Content is King" way more than you really want to acknowledge - Copyblogger provide his own take on that metaphor.
3. If you're a freelance writer, a blog should be your number one promotion tool.  Here are 5 reasons why.
4. Here's a cool tool to try: Dan Zarrella, the Viral Marketing and Social Media Scientist, has built a keyword tool to help you find popular topics on Digg.
5. And now for something completely different (and really effin' funny):

What is Social Media? You're Soaking In It

You know, I get ideas for blog topics from a lot of places (what blogger doesn’t); but my husband, in his seemingly indifferent and somewhat uninformed way, provides some rather interesting fodder for a blog post.  Yesterday, he was looking at a job posting on LinkedIn with a digital agency that specialized in social media.  So, he asked me “What’s ‘social media’?”

Now, I describe him as “uninformed” because he’s simply unfamiliar with the term “social media” and what it encompasses.  Fair enough – social media is…well, what you’re doing right now, I told him.

“What, looking at job postings on LinkedIn?”

“Well, networking on LinkedIn.  And that’s just part of it.  It’s sites like Youtube, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Twitter…”

Pause.

“Basically, it’s called ‘social media’ because it’s about forming an online community of friends and socializing with them by sharing things that are important or of interest to you.”

“Ah, ok”

His question really got me to thinking about social media from a different perspective.  The term “social media” tends to be thrown around in a somewhat loose sense, because it not only encompasses so many mediums for sharing, but means different things to different people (for instance, would the casual Facebook, Myspace, or StumbleUpon user refer to what they’re doing as “social media”, or even recognize that term?).

So, my question to all of you is: what is social media and what does it mean to you?

Unlock the Full Potential of Your LinkedIn Profile

Up until recently, my husband thought the end-all be-all of job searching was blasting his resume to tons of hiring managers and recruiters via a plethora of job sites, both large and small.  Now, I’m not saying that this is bad or won’t work; however, I’ve managed to convince him that there is more to the job search than resume blasting.

Enter LinkedIn.

He wasn’t easily convinced; but after I helped him to optimize and revitalize his stale LinkedIn profile, he finally saw the light that networking with real people, in addition to his resume blasting efforts, could actually have some value. 

So are you using your LinkedIn profile to its fullest potential?  Whether you’re looking for a new job or new business  – it’s important that you build your LinkedIn profile in order to attract these potentially valuable contacts.  Today I’m going to share with you my tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile:

Building Your Headline

• Think beyond your current job title and towards your future.  Your profile headline (located directly under your name) should convey as succinctly as possible (within 70 characters or less) not only what you do currently, but what you would like to do as well.  Think of it from the perspective of an employer searching for a candidate, or a prospective partner searching for an opportunity. 
• Use keywords that are highly relevant to your space and for which you would want your profile to show up. 
• Don’t be too broad.  While your current job title may be “project manager”, that means different things in different industries.  What is your specialty?  Are you an IT project manager?  A construction project manager? 

Listing Your Experience

• Stay within the constraints of your actual current and past titles, but make sure to create keyword-rich experience blurbs for each.
• Don’t forget your Summary and Specialties sections! The summary should be a paragraph or two that describe, in a nutshell, your experience and is optimized with your niche keywords.  Don’t make this too long – make it succinct and scannable for readers.  Your specialities should be a well-optimized, comprehensive list of your areas of expertise.
• Make sure to add links to your company’s (or your) website, your blog, RSS feed, and/or portfolio.

Getting Recommendations

• Evaluate your network of connections and determine who you could ask for recommendations from.  Try to choose current and past colleagues from different levels (your direct reports, same level, you report to) with whom you maintain a good relationship and you’re confident will vouch for you.
• When requesting recommendations, use something more personalized than the default text LinkedIn provides for recommendation requests.
• Do unto others…many times you’ll receive a good recommendation from someone without having to ask for it – simply because you gave them a good recommendation.  But even if you do have to ask, providing a good recommendation for that person certainly sweetens the pot.

Joining Groups

• LinkedIn now has the functionality in place to search for groups – so take advantage of it.  You can find any number of professional, alumni, or interest groups to join. 
• I like to look for groups that have a sizable membership.  The more people in a group, the more people with whom you share a common interest.  You can find out how many people are in a group just by clicking on the group name.
• Groups provide excellent networking opportunities, because they give you common ground on which to network and connect with other members.
• You can decide which groups you want to be visible in your profile.  Depending on your particular goals, you may want to hide some of your group memberships.

Listing Your Interests, Honors, and Awards

• Yes – list your personal interests (that are appropriate to list on a public business profile)!  This section is searchable, and you never know what common interest may bring you your next valuable business or career connection. 
• Honors and Awards are icing on the cake – but only list professional honors that are relevant to your area of expertise.

I’ll be posting more ways to use LinkedIn to find and interact with contacts, but your profile is definitely the best place to start making the most of LinkedIn.  In the meantime, please comment below if there’s anything that has (or even hasn’t) worked for you.

Whole Lotta Link Love Friday, August 15

It's been an interesting and busy week for me this week (which is definitely a good thing).  I was invited to my first speaking gig for American Independent Writers, which will be a panel discussion on how writers can share and promote their work on the web (thanks to Kristen King for inviting me to participate - more info on it later).

It's link lovin' time, and I've found some really outstanding content to share with you:

1. Potay-to, Potah-to, Social Media Marketing or Social Marketing - which one is correct?  Matt Peters at Pandemic Blog discusses.
2. Involved in forums or forum marketing?  Here's another free research tool at your disposal - Twing Forum Search.
3. I discovered a great new blog called Better Business Blogging, written by The Blog Coach Mark White.  Here he lists 12 essential blogging tools he uses.
4. If you're a freelancer, you know there are certain things you should never tell your clients.  Here are two of them from Idea Lady Cathy Stucker.
5. There is most definitely an art and a science to writing PPC ad copy that actually works.  Check out this PPC copy writing formula to help you improve your ads.
6. Finally, social media has tgiven a lot of mundane things rockstar status almost overnight.  Here are some of those things.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Caffeinated Poll of the Week, August 14

My husband has just recently discoved the value of using LinkedIn.  He's looking for a new job opportunity at the moment, and I advised him to use LinkedIn in addition to his other efforts on job sites.  He wasn't easily convinced of this, but now he's on there every day now - joining groups, reconnecting with old colleagues, and just generally networking away.  Brothers and sisters of social networking - he's seen the light!  Hallelujah!

So, his new found job search resource is the inspiration for this week's poll.  Please choose the one main reason.  If it's not listed, feel free to choose Other and leave a comment about how you use LinkedIn.  You never know - you may be inspiring someone else!

Business Blogging Strategy Part Deux: What is Your Writing Strategy?

In my last Business Blogging Strategy post, I outlined some essential steps to take to develop a sustainable blogging strategy – before you start the blog.  So, now that you’ve determined your business blog strategy and set up your blog, it’s time to think about what you’re going to write.

Now, many bloggers will write posts specifically designed to pull in a lot of traffic, while others will write posts and then spend time actively seeking traffic for them.  Which way will you choose?  Well, these options are actually at opposite ends of the spectrum, and there’s a middle-ground, hybrid writing strategy that could actually work much better for you.  First, let me go into some more detail on the first two strategies:

Writing Posts for Traffic

These are blog posts specifically designed to pull in huge amounts of traffic from different sources, such as search engines, social bookmarking sites (like Digg or Delicious), and blog aggregators/directories.  Topics of these posts usually revolve around what is currently popular on the social bookmarking sites, and they are highly optimized for search with the most popular keywords.  They can be relevant, interesting, and hold the audience’s attention; however, many times all of this incoming traffic will simply hit and leave the site within less than a minute.

Getting Traffic to Your Posts

These blog posts may be pretty well-written and targeted to their audience, but are not well-optimized for search for social sites.  The author (or administrator, or whoever is responsible for traffic/promotion) has to seek out traffic for their posts; which will be limited to social bookmarking/networking sites, blog directories, email, and the existing RSS subscription base (if there even is one). 

The Hybrid Strategy

By utilizing the best of both worlds as described above, you will not only write quality posts that are well targeted, but which are well optimized as well.  Here are some tips to follow when deciding on blog post topics and writing your posts:

• Check out the authority blogs in your industry or niche to get an idea of current issues and topics of interest.

• Check out Digg, Delicious, Technorati, and StumbleUpon, as well as niche social sites, for the popular stories and topics in your niche or industry.

• Don’t write on topics that have been overdone, and don’t try and rewrite other bloggers’ posts.  Choose a relevant topic on which you can offer your own insight and expertise.

• Once you’ve decided on a topic, do some keyword research around that topic to determine the best keywords to optimize for.

• Think quality, relevancy, and readability first, optimization second.  Write the blog post first, without thinking about keywords, then go back and optimize.

Whole Lotta Link Love Friday, August 8

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing start today, and like an Olympic diver, I'm just going to dive right in head first to this week's links:

1. I found this excellent Freshbooks giveaway on Freelance Switch, and I wanted to spread the word: Freshbooks $1500 Client Experience Giveaway
2. I follow Tad Szewczyk (onreact) on a variety of social networks, and I respect the hell out him. I recently read on his blog a great post about how not to pitch him on StumbleUpon, which is good advice in general for all social networking sites.
3. Are you a content writer or website owner who writes website articles?  Here's a great guide on Daily Writing Tips on how to write keyword-rich articles.
4. Here's a really comprehensive site to keep you updated on all those new 2.0 sites that seem to pop up every two seconds.
5. Three words: coffee geek porn
6. For my last link, I'm going to do something I wouldn't normally do for Whole Lotta Link Love Friday: link to my own post.  I'll tell you why: my post on using social media sites for market research was clipped over at Social Median, and a comment was left by Chris Kim A that I hadn't mentioned Friendfeed.  The reason I didn't mention it in my post is because (horrors!) I don't use Friendfeed.  So, if you use Friendfeed, I'd like to give you the opportunity to comment on my post about how it can used for market research.  It'll be a learning experience for all of us, including me.

Have a great weekend everyone, and don't forget to comment on your blogger!

Caffeinated Poll of the Week, August 7

As I was catching up on all the news that's fit to feed in my extensive collection of RSS subscriptions (a whopping 38 in total), I wondered if other people were subscribed to as many feeds as I am.  I mean, seriously - how do you keep up with so much news (I use that term loosely) and your job at the same time without going all ADD?

So, that's the inspiration for this week's poll:

How to Use Social Media for Market Research

You may think that market research is something you have to buy, like an expert-researched, highly detailed, 20-page report that’ll cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Maybe for large companies with money to burn; but certainly not for startups or small businesses with little or no budget.  Market research is information that is absolutely vital to the success of your business, so how do you get hold of that information if you don’t have the money to spend on long reports and focus groups?

Guess what?  Using social media sites, you can conduct your own market research – for FREE.  Not only that, you’ll be able to monitor actual conversations as they’re happening – something a 20-page report won’t do.

Here are 5 ways you can use social media and networking sites for market research:

StumbleUpon

Search for any topic on StumbleUpon, and you’re presented with not only a list of sites about that topic, but a sampling of SU users who like that topic.  Click on any of those users to find out key demographics, such as ages, genders, and locations, as well as their other topics of interest.

Here's a StumbleUpon topic page about coffee:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an especially useful B2B market research tool, since it allows you to communicate directly with and gauge response from people from all industries, levels, and locations.  By using LinkedIn Answers, you can ask questions about your products and services and target it to a specific set of users through proper categorization.

You can also use the search functionality to look for people on LinkedIn using job title, company, industry, and even personal interest keywords.  If you’re looking for demographics for specific companies, LinkedIn serves them up for you on a silver platter by presenting a full profile page for nearly every company listed on their site.  These profiles include company vital stats, as well as other really useful stats such as common job titles, top schools attended, average age, and gender percentages.

 

Twitter

Since Twitter is all about having conversations, you have the opportunity to listen in on those conversations to find out what’s being said about your market space, products, services, or industry.  By using a Twitter tool like Summize (which Twitter has newly acquired), you can glean powerful market intelligence in near-real time by searching for any topic.

Here's a search on the keyword "iPhone" using Summize:

 

Twitter is a micro-blogging service, and there are others out there like Plurk and Pownce.  Check out this post on how to use and manage them effectively.

Forums

Before Twitter, possibly even before chat – there were forums.  Web 1.0’s version of social media.  They’re still very much alive and thriving in practically every niche out there.  Just search for any topic plus the word "forums" on Google, and you’ll find a treasure trove of boards where your audience is talking about your products or services.

Here's the first page of results for search engine marketing forums:

Niche Social Sites 

More and more social networking and media sites are popping up for a variety of niche subjects, such as small business, web development and design, pets, women’s topics, cars…the list keeps growing.  Become involved with these sites, and you’ll gain valuable knowledge about your target audience and their particular interests.