Quite often, a blog is the cornerstone of any social media endeavor. Our tweets, our links, and our Facebook status usually leads right to the blog. With that said, your house better be in order when you invite people over. Here are 5 things that should be considered when developing your blog.

1. Define Your Blog

What is your blog about? Who is your target audience? Focus is key when you begin writing your blog. You can have a blog about sports. You can have a blog about geometry. But if you follow a post on Michael Jordan with one on the pythagorean theorem, you might lose your audience. Here at MichaelBertoldi.Net, you may find a post on copywriting as well as a motivational type of post like What Do You Do? However, they’ll always have a corp theme of marketing and achievement.

Pick a genre, if you will, and develop an identity for your blog.

2. Pick a Platform

Typepad, WordPress.com, WordPress.org, Blogger… There are many options when it comes to a blog platform. I started with blogger, moved to wordpress.com, and now host my own blog and use wordpress.org. While I’m grateful that I’ve had experience with various platforms, I’d advise learning from my experience and jump straight to WordPress.org. Get someone who can teach you how to obtain hosting space, install wordpress, and begin blogging under your own domain.

3. Select a Theme

Regardless of what platform you choose (wordpress.org) you’ll find theme upon theme ready to give your blog a worthy design. A suggestion from experience – be willing to pay. You can change your theme time and time again, but chances are you’ll get what you pay for. That’s not to say you can’t find a good theme for free. One of my favorite free themes is Jenny.

The best framework I’ve seen comes from Thesis (used here) and Genesis. You can also find nice themes at Woothemes and ThemeForest. In conclusion, just make sure your blog is presentable and professional.

4. Get Ahead, Write Now!

Start writing now! Even if your blog isn’t up yet, start writing. One of the most challenging principals to blogging is providing good content on a regular basis. Remember, content is king. Go ahead and use this opportunity to get in the habit of writing and writing often. It may be a good idea to have five or so posts ready to go when you launch your blog. Then, keep feeding it on a regular basis.

5. Optimize

Once you’re ready to get going with your blog, you need to make sure it’s optimized. That means showing readers an obvious way to subscribe and contact you. It also means having SEO and social sharing tools in place. Plugins are a huge benefit to using wordpress and many of them will take care of these things for you. While I could write an entire post on which wordpress plugins you should use, that’s already been done. Check out this great post from Nicholas Cardot on the Best Plugins for WordPress as well as this post from Ricardo Bueno on 13 Must Have WordPress Plugins. Make sure you read the comments from both of those posts as they too contain some excellent ideas.

What about your experience in blogging? What blogging platforms have you tried? What did you end up sticking with? What are some other steps that I may have overlooked?

Photo by Annie Mole

Related posts:

1. Keep Discovering

How many times have you been at a mixer, conference, or other networking soiree and been asked “What do you do?” That question is pretty standard and seems to have solidified itself as the universal icebreaker at business events. First of all, let’s do a little better shall we? Be genuinely interested in the person your meeting and do indeed get them talking about themselves – it opens them up. But mix it up sometimes. Ask them about their hometown, their family, and then get jiggy with the professional stuff. Now, back to the lecture at hand.

You’re More Than a Title

Me? I help businesses craft a message – an identity if needed – and disseminate that message effectively. I help companies utilize social media tools and become engaging and compelling online. I bridge the gap between traditional advertising and new media, connecting brands with consumers. I like to get creative and come up with different ways to garner attention or start a buzz. Sure, if you want a title you can say I’m a Marketing  and Social Media Consultant. But you asked “What do I do?” So, What do you do?

“I’m a Realtor.” No. You help first time home buyers understand the process of buying a home. The hunt, the offer, the inspection, the request for repairs, the closing. You help sellers price their home where it will sell, not at a price that will help the neighbors sell their home. You help those relocating find a community, not just a home. You build relationships.

“I’m a Life Coach.” No. You help individuals with their work/life balance. You encourage your clients to set goals and then you hold them accountable for achieving them. You make people reach for the stars, ensuring them that if they miss, they’ll land on the moon. You push, motivate, and bring out the best in people who need a little help reaching that untapped potential.

“I’m a Caterer.” No. You support events by allowing the host to focus on her guests, not refreshments. You provide a conversation piece – if there’s one thing that brings people together, it’s good food. You give people options and make for a memorable event by offering creative items on your menu – sure the little smokies are there, but you’re more than that.

Get the Point?

We’ve grown accustomed to simply stating our title when asked what we do – it’s the norm. But when you attend that next event with 15 other realtors, what’s going to set you apart? When you’re at that chamber event with two other caterers, what will make the people you meet remember you? Don’t be one of the many people that simply run together in someone’s mind. Be more than your title. Be creative. Be the one they remember.

So.. What do you do? Consider the comments your practice run. Now make an impression!

Also, what are some other ways people can take it a step further than simply stating their title?

Photo by dietmar

No related posts.

We get stuck in all sorts of funk don’t we? From marketing strategies and new media to fitness goals and just life in general. At times, we may reach a point where we’re repeating the same routine, producing the same results, and it seems like we’re not learning anything new. We need something fresh. Something new to stumble upon. A new workout to throw in the fitness mix. New material to read. New perspectives on social media and marketing to consider. To that I say, keep discovering!

Stuck Sucks. But the Fresh Ideas are Out There

If you’re looking for quality reading material, there’s a place called Barnes and Noble with lots of choices. If you’re looking for a fresh approach to new media and marketing tools, there’s an entire internet awaiting. See, just this week, I discovered the blog of Mark Schaefer. His blog over at BusinessGrow.com is a place I’m glad I’ve discovered. Sometimes it feels like we talk about the same old stuff in social media doesn’t it? ROI, engagement, twitter, ROI, criticism, you’re not doing it right, ROI. But the first post I read at Mark’s blog was Ten Reasons to Blog Even if Nobody Reads it. The title certainly caught my attention as, get this, it was new to me! As I read, I found myself agreeing with just about every point he made – almost thinking “yeah… Yeah… YEAH!” A fresh, well-written post on 10 reasons to keep blogging if nobody is reading it – that’s the post that reeled this guy in. That’s the post that delivered something different.

Expanding Your Sphere

This isn’t meant to be a “Mark Schaefer is awesome” post. And there’s nothing wrong with reading the same blogs every day. My point is this; if you find yourself reading the same stuff all the time and feeling a little anti-energetic about what you’re doing, then try to find something new. After all, it’s out there. You may think you’ve seen every blog worth reading, but chances are you haven’t. There’s new insight out there waiting to be discovered, you’ve just got to open your mind and expand your focus.

Go find that new exercise to spice up your monotonous workout. Research that new author. Find that new blogger. There’s plenty of “new” out there to supplement the “same ole” that you’re accustomed to.

When you’re looking for new content to learn from, where do you turn? New twitter followers? Recommendations from current connections? Better yet, how do you ensure that your content is new and fresh?

Photo by Kabsick Park

No related posts.

We’ve all heard the expressions. Most of us have used them ourselves. “I’m like a sponge, soaking it all up.” Or “I’m just here to take it all in.” Then there’s the old “You learn something new everyday!” Well intended of course, but when are you going ring out all that you’ve soaked up?

Knowledge is Power. Unless it’s Stored.

The title for this post came from Chris Brogan and his post on Finding Your Inspirational Code. He made the point that “Learning without execution is a big engine with no wheels.” Think about that for a minute. A big engine with no wheels. A nice blog with no posts. A proven diet, with no adherence. A marketing plan with no execution. A dream with no work ethic. Knowing how and doing it are far too often unrelated.

Stop reading the Script and Start Playing the Part

That means you. You run a business and you’ve heard of Twitter. You’ve been on Facebook. You still don’t get it but you don’t ask either. And you. You’re not happy with what you see in the mirror. Yet those cross trainers still have that new shoe smell. I see you Mr. Author. That great book idea isn’t going to write itself.

No More Excuses. No More Resolutions. No More Planning. Just Doing.

You know why some people make new year’s resolutions? Because they didn’t do it this year. Why haven’t they already reached that goal? It was indeed a goal right? Stop telling people why you didn’t do it. Start explaining how you did it. Stop planning, adjusting, and scrutinizing. I too love it when a plan comes together. I love it more when it’s executed.

People know you for what you’ve done, not for what you plan to do.

~Author Unknown

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

~Abraham Lincoln

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

~Will Rogers

Write those quotes down. But then what? What have you’ve been meaning to do? What’s your role?  You’ve studied the script. You know all the lines. Now play the part. You’ve thought about it long enough. You’ve read the books. You know the material. Do it.

Let’s take it a step further. Let’s be accountable. Leave a comment and name something that you’ve been meaning to do. Include your twitter handle – because I’m going to give you a little window of time, a window of opportunity, and then I’m going to check in and see if you’ve made progress. Real progress. The doing kind.

Photo from Corleone713

No related posts.

Think about the qualities associated with a local coffee shop. Good coffee, a relaxing environment, free wifi conducive to work or study, access to the internet, and a wireless network connection.

Yes, of course I realize that free wifi, access to the internet, and a wireless network connection are essentially the same thing. It’s three times important. But don’t think about it from the vantage point of the necessities of a coffee shop – you know how important wifi is to your customers. The more important thing to consider is why wifi is so important to a coffee shop.

Your Customers are Showing You Where to Reach Them

Savvy that. Who needs focus groups and exposure statistics when customers are in your business, showing you exactly how to reach them? Seriously, think about it for a minute – I’ll wait… Ready? What’d you see? I saw the regulars. Not the drive-thru, morning coffee regulars. The three times a week, your establishment is my home office regulars. The I come here to study, work, and surf the internet regulars. You see them. Laptops and smartphones abound. Now connect with them.

How I Would Connect With the Coffee Crowd

We know Facebook and Twitter are huge players in the social media space – especially for B2C types. But if I ran a product plus service based business where things are consumed – like a restaurant, ice cream joint, coffee shop – Foursquare and Yelp would play a huge role in how I connect with my customers.

Foursquare

First of all, don’t let your employees become the mayor of your establishment (If you’re not familiar with what it means to be the “mayor” on Foursquare – click here for a quick schooling on Foursquare). An occasional check-in is ok, but don’t oust your customers. If that happens, the whole mayor deal is out the window. Besides, it’s not fair to stack your best customers up against someone who has to be there everyday.

Speaking of the mayor, give them a worthwhile deal. I’ve seen a restaurant offer the mayor 25% off of food. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. How about a pizza joint giving their mayor free bread sticks everyday? Again, a decent deal for the mayor of your business. But an offer like $1 off a drink purchase? Come on. If someone frequents your establishment so much that they’re there more than anyone else, do them better than that. Yeah, I’m looking at you Starbucks.

Also consider giving those who aren’t the mayor a deal for checking in. Come up with a system where you reward customers for their first check-in, fifth check-in, tenth check-in, and so on. Perhaps even a “check-in X amount of times in one month” deal would be nice. The restaurant I mentioned earlier does this. Your first check-in gets you a free appetizer with your meal, your fifth gets you a free dessert with your meal, and your tenth gets you free lunch.

Now, there are probably better and worse deals than what I’ve mentioned here. Just consider them as examples and do what you can to reward your customers who check-in on foursquare.

Yelp

If you own a restaurant or coffee shop and you’re not familiar with Yelp, you’re already behind the eight ball. Quickly open a new tab or a new window on your internet browser and click here to read about Yelp then click here and watch this presentation on Yelp. Now, the best part about Yelp is the review system. You get to see real reviews from real people, as their slogan states, and often times they’re positive. What I find interesting about Yelp is that it’s not your typical review site. People don’t seem to go there simply to complain. You might even find that positive reviews out number the negative reviews. Yelp is a site where the consumers connect with one another, share photos, and allow you – in most cases – to contact them! That’s right. Whether their review is good or bad, reward them for writing it. Could a free coffee fix a bad experience? Maybe, maybe not. But it could get you another chance. Could a free coffee keep a good reviewer coming back? Possibly even entice them to spread the word about your business? It’s certainly worth a try.

There’s also a check-in system on Yelp. When it comes to customers becoming the “Duke” of your establishment from checking in on Yelp, simply apply what we’ve talked about regarding “Mayors” on Foursquare.

Do it Now

Don’t wait. Meet your customers where they are – online. Reward then handsomely. Help them help you. All it takes is some social love and your customers can become your best marketers.

Sound like a plan? Are you already offering deals on Foursquare and connecting with reviews on Yelp? Let us know how it’s going in the comments.

Photo from antWerpenR

Related posts:

1. The Future of Business Ratings
2. Time to Revisit Yelp – Presentation

I’m going to my local Chamber of Commerce today for a ribbon cutting. It’s not for my company. It’s not for a company I work for. It’s for Susan Voiers, owner of the Tennessee Valley Barter Exchange. I’ve only met Susan in person once, however, I’ve interacted with her and read her posts on Linkedin for quite some time now. So when she has her moment, I’m going to be there – Flip Mino in hand. What’s my point, you ask?

Take Your Relationships Offline

If you’re engaging in social media and doing it well, you find value in the information exchange that takes place online. Perhaps you tweet often, you connect with others on Linkedin, and you maintain a blog. You’re connected to a social sphere that consists of people all over the world. But what about those in your own backyard? Those are the people that are easiest to meet with face to face. Those are the people you should be supporting every chance you get, offline. Those are the people that can help you locally and provide a community that strengthens when we become acquainted offline.

Business Happens Offline

Sure, if you’re selling a product and effectively engaging via social media, you can close deals online. Obviously I’m a huge advocate of building relationship online and connecting with people there. But again, how much can you strengthen your presence by meeting and interacting with people offline? It’s similar to the whole traditional advertising plus social media angle right? One compliments the other.

So, support your local community of businesses and entrepreneurs. See if it’s possible to connect face to face with influential friends on twitter when you’re traveling through their neck of the woods. Take this relationship you’ve established online and attempt to strengthen it offline. After all, engaging in social media takes a human touch. If you can foster community online, you can probably do the same offline.

What are you doing when you’re not online? How many people have you connected with online prior to meeting them in person. How does face to face interaction affect the community you engage online?

Photo from USFWSmidwest

No related posts.

After posting about Yelp and the Future of Business Ratings, I decided it was time for a presentation. The presentation you’ll find here is a basic rundown of the features that make Yelp amazing. Yelp is a place where people read and write reviews, connect with one another, and check-in via location based networking (like foursquare). It’s fun and informative for consumers, but also a wonderful opportunity for businesses given that they can send messages to consumers who write reviews. This allows businesses to respond and thank consumers while also offering them the opportunity to address issues with bad reviews and make things right for the customer.

Thanks to my friend David Griner for posting my presentation on his blog, The Social Path, which is where I borrowed the title Time to Revisit Yelp. Notice the comment on this post from a Yelp user and you might understand its importance.

Hope you enjoy the presentation! Are you using Yelp? As a consumer? For business? Share your Yelp experience in the comments.

Related posts:

1. The Future of Business Ratings
2. Listening is Still Overlooked in Social Media

What ratings do people trust? Where do consumers go when it’s time to review a local business? As more and more consumers become socially savvy, more and more of them will consult services like Yelp versus the Better Business Bureau.

Of course, this is not a knock on the BBB, but things have been going this way for a while now. As people, we tend to trust our peers more than organizations. We read product reviews written by consumers just like us and place more value on those ratings than those provided by organizations and publications. This shift in trust applies to businesses now as well. With that said, let’s look at the difference between a rating on the BBB and one on Yelp. We’ll use a favorite restaurant of mine, Phil Sandoval’s Mexican Restaurante.

The Better Business Bureau

A quick search of the BBB for “Phil Sandoval’s Mexican Restaurante” will provide a rundown of this business. You can check it out for yourself here. But how much can we learn from that rundown? Immediately, we see that the BBB gives Phil’s a rating of B+. As we scroll down, we learn that Phil’s is not an accredited BBB business. Fair enough, but not exactly relevant. Now for some valuable information – the reason for the rating. The BBB states the reason for Phil’s B+ rating is “Length of time business has been operating.” From this page, you can also gather information for the restaurant such as the address, phone number, type of business and services offered, as well as the assurance that there have been zero complaints in the past 36 months. While this information may be somewhat useful, it’s fairly vague for a consumer.

Yelp.com

Now let’s see what we can find out about Phil Sandoval’s Mexican Restaurante on Yelp. Similar to the BBB’s rating, the first thing you may notice on Yelp is the rating. Phil’s rating is 3.5 stars out of 5. However, you also notice that there are currently 10 reviews. Back to those in a moment. A quick skim through on yelp will give you a wealth of information about a business including its category, price range, and accommodations. Users might even have uploaded photos of the business. But the most important thing about Yelp, is of course, the ratings. Yelp ratings are one through five stars and may be accompanied by a full, written review.

A funny thing about ratings and reviews or complaints and compliments, is that sometimes people are quick to complain, but not as eager to compliment. For the most part, Yelp seems to be balanced. I think that comes from the community of reviewers on Yelp. They enjoy writing reviews as well as being social and Yelp provides an enjoyable platform for both. It’s not just a site for reviews, it’s an experience. You can add friends, compliment them, check in (like foursquare and facebook places), become the duke of different venues, and so on. It’s not an organization. It’s a community of people who trust each other and value their peer’s input. Notice when I mentioned photos, that I said Users may have uploaded them. Yelp revolves around consumers, but you have a chance to engage them.

What it Means to Your Business?

It means that reviews and business ratings are now in the hands of consumers more than ever. A customer has no need to contact the BBB when they can get online and effect your brand directly through places like Yelp. It means that you better be out there, engaging consumers, and influencing what they say about your business. They will say something and it well be read. Take this as an opportunity. Harness it and explore the opportunities to influence your reputation on Yelp – from a social media perspective as well as in-store – online and off.

I’ve got more on Yelp coming soon. But for now, have you explored the possibilities? Have you written reviews from a consumer point-of-view or embraced the Yelp community in any form? Have you added your business on Yelp? How about check-ins? I find myself wanting to check-in on two apps now – Foursquare and Yelp.

What do you think about the BBB? Is it important? Now that services like Yelp provide peer reviews that consumers trust, does a BBB accreditation or rating mean as much anymore?

Let us know your thoughts.

Related posts:

1. The Truth About the Future of Social Media

It’s fundamental, it’s been emphasized, yet it’s still being overlooked.

Arguably, the single biggest key to social media is listening. It’s been said that the difference between traditional advertising and social media is that traditional advertising is talking at consumers while social media is talking with them. How do you talk with someone if you aren’t listening?

One fundamental mistake businesses make when deciding to engage consumers using social media is not fully understanding what it means to engage. While broadcasting your sales, posting links to your new story, or inviting users to like you on facebook might seem like engaging, it’s not.

This fundamental mistake might stem from the misconception that “using social media”  is as easy as jumping on twitter, posting some awesome tweets, and watching the fans roll in – easy peasy! Just get on Facebook and Twitter. Not so fast my friend.

Join the Party. The Party Doesn’t Join You.

Remember that first homecoming party you went to? All the cool kids were there. They were drinking punch, dancing, talking about the latest happenings in the hood – then you walked in. Everyone ran up to you, huddled around, asked you what song should be played next, and signed up on the dance with you waiting list!

Yeah. Social media doesn’t work that way either. Just because you join the party and post a few links doesn’t mean the record stops and all attention shifts to you. You’ve got to be engaging and find ways to establish two-way communication with consumers. Where are they? What are their interests? What would they like from you?

A good place to start is Search.Twitter.com. If you need a good reference, Chris Brogan wrote a post on how to use the twitter search tool. Use Google Blogsearch. Experiment with new tools like RowFeeder.

However you do it, you’ve got to monitor and listen or you’re missing the boat with social media.

Why is it that we’re past the Social Media honeymoon, yet some people still see it as simply creating a Facebook page and posting a few tweets per day? I have a theory on that. Some of us are marketers – period. It’s what we do. We follow each other, share information, and stay on top of the marketing world. But, we’re in somewhat of a glass bubble. Not everyone outside of our sphere understands this the way we do. Thus, one of the most basic concepts of social media – listening – gets overlooked.

While we’re on the subject, what tools do you use to listen? How has your technique for monitoring the social web changed and evolved over time? Still using the basic tools or are there a few shiny new additions to the social media monitoring tool box?

The comments are yours.

Photo Credit: Jason Nicholls, Flickr

Related posts:

1. The Truth About the Future of Social Media
2. What is Social Media?
3. The Key to Old Spice’s Social Media Success

I remember when my family brought home our first Windows computer. It was an amazing time for us. Of course it made us more efficient when it came to school, papers, and things of that nature. But that wasn’t the amazing part. The amazing part came in the form of AOL. Don’t act like you don’t remember those profiles, chat rooms, and the infamous “You’ve got mail.” AOL was it!

Fast forward to 2010. Who uses AOL anymore?

The point? The point is, this isn’t about AOL. It’s about the tools we use to engage people.

The truth is, we don’t know what the future holds for social media.

As it stands, twitter, facebook, and youtube seem like the mainstays. But what happens if they go away? Those who adapted when the great social media revolution took off will adapt again. They’ll find innovative ways to use the tools we have now or they’ll adapt to the tools to come.

I’ve seen it mentioned that companies may start going back to broadcast and trend away from social media. I’ve seen it said that twitter has plateaued – although the declining numbers must take into account the number of twitter users who use third party software like tweetdeck, hootsuite, or twitter for iphone instead of twitter.com. However, no one truly knows that will happen with social media. New tools may bring new mediums, but those who can engage customers will do so regardless of the arena.

Whether the likes of twitter and facebook prove their longevity or new tools emerge as the frontrunners, a foundation in marketing, a sense of connecting with consumers, and new media savvy will keep you in the game.

The question is, where will the game be played?

What do you think about the future of social media? Saying that no one knows what the future holds – as I have done – is of course, stating the obvious. But it’s ok to speculate. Do you see businesses placing more emphasis back on traditional media? Will twitter, facebook, and youtube prevail or will new tools emerge?

Let the debate begin.

Related posts:

1. What is Social Media?
2. Social Media, Approachable Advice
3. The Key to Old Spice’s Social Media Success