Organise and develop your content before you start
It’s no good having a blog with no content. In fact, there’s no such thing as a blog with no content. Sit down with the team or part of you business that’s going to be responsible for the blog. In this instance, the more people who get involved, the better. Have a brainstorming session where each person can suggest ideas for postings – including photos, videos and podcasts as well as writing. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. Blogs are less formal, more about personality. Is someone doing a charity run? That’s worth mentioning. Is there a new team, or someone who’s just started the development of a new product. Does someone have a great suggestion for a contest? Get all you ideas in a list.
Assigning the work
Ideally, your blog isn’t created by one person, but by a team of people. The goal is to interact with people, not lecture or badger. This is definitely easier if there’s more than one person creating content. At the next meeting or through an email round robin, start assigning ideas and deadlines. And don’t forget to use the keywords connected with your site or service areas. Remind everyone that posts shouldn’t be full of jargon. You’re talking to customers after all. Assign someone the task of proofreading everything, and make sure you’ve developed a sign off procedure. Is there a camera in the business? Can you borrow one? Pictures make a difference.
Thinking agency
For many businesses, it’s more practical and effective to hire an external agency to manage and develop a blog. And it’s easy to see why. Blogs need to be regularly updated and the need time from the development perspective, too. So sit down with your team and decide on a wish list. What do you want your blog to achieve? How is it part of your wider marketing strategy? What do you think is most important about connecting with your customers right now? How far does the blog have to reach? UK customers? International?
If you need help with a blog, or developing the strategy that will help you get started in social media, get in touch with us at Marketing Zone. We’re always interested in new conversations.
Marketing Zone is a busy agency. There’s always another website to develop, a proposal to finish or some freshly designed logos ready to present to a client. But we don’t spend our days in business as usual mode. We like to do that little bit extra. A good way to meet people, talk about what we do and get feedback is to hold an event at The Chartered Institute of Marketing. Mark, our Managing Director, and Dee, our Communications Director, are Chartered Marketers and active members of The Institute. Not only is The Chartered Institute of Marketing a source of qualifications and training in marketing, it offers opportunities for marketers to exchange ideas and develop professionally. They also offer guidance on selecting and briefing an agency.
Our event was called How to brief an agency – the story of Polaroid Eyewear and Marketing Zone. Our goal was to develop a presentation that was interesting, interactive and inspiring. Briefing an agency can be a huge challenge and marketers need to adapt quickly to changing priorities. For us, effective communications and strong relationships are key starting points. They’re the foundation for the strategies behind successful integrated campaigns, and good communications in general. Polaroid Eyewear is a great example of a brand that started from nothing – and with the right integrated campaign, quickly gained momentum among trade partners and consumers.
Twitter. Facebook. Yahoo Forums. BeBo. My Space. Flickr. You Tube. It’s hard to keep up, much less develop a way to use social marketing to support your business and your bottom line. To help, here’s some pointer to help you start thinking social.
- Social is different. It’s not another platform you can use to reach customers with your marketing message. You can’t set up a social media presence that operates like another advertising channel – that would encroach on territory that belongs to people, not organisations. Social Media is powerful because it can bring the opinions of your customers straight to your business.
- The first step: listening. There’s a good chance that your customers and potential customers are out there using blogs, forums, comparison sites or even Twitter to talk about your products and services. Someone may be complaining about your customer care or praising a speedy delivery. But you won’t know about it until you start listening. There’s lots of tools out there to help, but it does take some time and effort to find the ones that will work for you. Google Alerts are a good place to start. Just put in your keywords and Google will tell you when they come up. There are also member-only forums (some people call them microcommunities) that won’t let you find out what’s going on until you become a member. So, it’s a good idea to find out where your business might be discussed. From forums for new parents to sites for anglers, there can be quite a list of places you need to look. Don’t overlook Technorati for finding relevant blogs.
- Decide on a strategy: Like any part of your marketing budget, social media efforts should support a clear goal. Do you want more conversions, a wider brand net or positive new brand associations. Or are you looking for information that will help you develop new products? Knowing what you want to achieve will help you determine the best paths to take. It sounds obvious, but so many organisations want to take a toe-in-the-water approach. And just see what happens…You certainly wouldn’t do that with an email marketing campaign, so why do it with your social marketing investment.
- Help others. Don’t just talk about yourself or your product. Mention useful ideas, promote a related charity. Get involved in related themes. It’s not about adjusting your megaphone to reach more people, it’s about finding influencers and winning them over.
Whether it’s a company blog, a Facebook fan page, a busy Twitter account or a group on LinkedIn, social marketing gives businesses new ways to engage with customers. Personal blogs created by everyone from avid runners to concerned citizens routinely comment on products or services. There’s also a growing number of forums that offer advice, pose questions and trade everything from recipes to the names of schools. Yahoo, Handbag.com and publications like Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire all offer their digital audiences a chance to launch their own topics and discussions on their in-house forums. With all this going on, it’s easy to picture the challenge of just listening to your customers, never mind talking to them or acting on their feedback. One of the benefits of Social Media is that it allows businesses of all types to get closer to their customers – wherever they may be. It makes sense to spend some time thinking about how different groups use social media.
Forrester’s new online tool can help you begin to profile your customers. Their research suggests six types of social media users.
- Creators – They write blogs, post photos and post videos and music.
- Critics – This group responds to content by making comments, writing reviews and posting answers in forums.
- Collectors – Their goal is to organise content through RSS feeds or Tools like Digg
- Joiners –These are the people using networks like Facebook or Linked-In
- Spectators –They read blogs, view photos and watch videos
- Inactives – Not involved with any social technology
It’s clear that different user groups go about using social media in different ways. A 25-year-old man in Canada has a very different profile than a woman of 42 in the UK. Understanding that profile will help marketers start to formulate a strategy to target different groups. Should you Facebook or blog, Twitter or develop a presence on forums? The answers aren’t obvious, but the Forrester tool is a good place to start.
Dee, Marketing Zone’s Communications Director, went to a business presentation about the 2012 Olympics and the opportunities for Hertfordshire, our home county. The 2012 Olympics will involve 70,000 volunteers. At the presentation, volunteer Rosemary Mula, spoke about her passion for the Olympics. Anyone can volunteer – there will be numerous different roles from the simplest of being a host to a house guest from abroad. Why not sign up to volunteer yourself?
It’s estimated that the Games could raise an estimated £100 million for Hertfordshire. Quite aside from the business opportunities it is great that Hertfordshire will be able to welcome athletes from around the world. Many of our sport and leisure facilities will be used as pre-games training camps and Hertfordshire will have its own Olympic venue – the new White Water Canoe centre at Waltham Cross which will be the first new Olympic sporting venue to be completed.
