FORWARD PROGRESS

FORWARD PROGRESS Growing your business beyond the VISION Blogging for Business

Facebook Fan Pages Dean DeLisle – Social Media Specialist • Founder and CEO of Forward Progress • Over 25 years in business Coaching and Consulting • Campaign Development in Social Media • Call Center, Internet, eMarketing, Event Management, • Intense Lead Generation, Web Seminars, eSelling • Over Billion Dollars Sales, 25 Million Leads, Coach and Trained Thousands of People using Internet Based Lead Generation • Financial Services, Real Estate, Professional Services, Legal, Accounting, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, Technical, Insurance, Agencies, Auto, Retail, Banking and Channel Sales…..

What is Blogging? A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Why blog? • A blog can be an incredible tool for sharing information and expertise. • A blog can be used to directly promote products, services and events. • A blog can assist in promoting company vision and developments. • A blog can foster customer loyalty, build relationships with clients and customers.

Why blog? • A blog can garner feedback and suggestions from clients • A blog can give customers information on how to use products, services and how to buy. • A blog can develop client community around a product.

Weaving Your Own Web Why blog? • The Magic Thread….. • Activity!

Getting Started Identify your audience. A basic precept of any business is just as essential with your blog. It's critical to pinpoint your audience and, in the process, decide what you're going to say that will make them read what you write.

Getting Started Decide where your blog should live Next up is determining where to locate your blog. There are numerous software packages that let you add a blog section to an existing Web site. A more automated and perhaps easier option is a blog hosting site (with a link from your Web site bringing visitors over). www.WordPress.com is a great site to set-up your blog.

Getting Started Ways to Increase Comments on Your Blog • Invite Comments • Ask Questions • Be Open Ended • Interact with comments left • Be humble • Be gracious • ‘Reward’ Comments • Make it Easy to Comment • Invite “Expert” Guests

Getting Started Emphasize keywords Search engine hits are another element of generating traffic. One strategy to attract search engine interest is through careful use of keywords in both your headlines and blog copy.

Getting Started Emphasize keywords Study your website, content and target and list an effective set of keywords that are “Relevant” to your objective. This how people would search for your target!

Getting Started Keep it fresh Nothing is more discouraging to prospective readers than returning to a blog site to find old or outdated material. So, be prepared to work at keeping your blog as fresh and current as possible. Have a system – empower the team!

Getting Started Watch your traffic closely Monitor the amount and quality of the traffic you receive. If things seem slow or stagnant, don't be afraid to vary your themes or subjects to boost interest. But don't stray too far from your business or expertise.

Writing Content Ultimately defining what is ‘good content’ is a subjective exercise (perhaps in a similar way to defining what is a ‘good book’ or a ‘good movie’) and so a post is likely to cause a little debate as each person will define it differently depending upon their personality, their needs, the topic that they are talking about and perhaps even their ethics. Not only will bloggers themselves each have a different view on what is ‘good’ content - but readers tend to also.

Writing Content Be Unique and Useful For a blog to be successful your content needs to be useful and unique to your readers. Start with the customer or prospect - find out what they want and give it to them. Perhaps the best advice on developing useful content is to research your readership (or potential readership).

Writing Content They Are Hungry for Knowledge Writing for your target DOES NOT mean writing about the products and services you sell them Write about the things they want to learn about

Remember Variety is the Key!

Writing Content Be the Thought Leader Should establish as a thought leader When starting put time into your plan and posts This will reflect your reputation

Writing Content Researching Survey customers, look a lot at other blogs on a topic (especially the comments section to see what types of questions people are asking) and particularly look hard in forums and discussion groups on topics where there is usually a lot of question asking going on. As you do this you’ll begin to put your finger on what people are wanting and what you might be able to provide to meet these needs.

Search for Blogs Writing Content

Writing Content Hidden Areas • Everywhere • Other blogs • Keep a list • When you learn something, flesh it out • Check your email outbox • Ask your readers/friends • Great speech’s • Hot relevant news

Writing Content Subscribe to other blog feeds via RSS A great way to see what other blogs are talking about in your industry is to subscribe to them using and RSS reader. There are many RSS reader tools available from Google Reader to Feed Demon. RSS Readers will update you when there is new content on a blog.

Writing Content Distinguish yourself Do some analysis on what sort of content other bloggers in your industry are producing. In most niches you’ll find that sites are all presenting very similar information in pretty much the same voice, tone and style. You can either replicate what they are doing and try to do it better OR you can distinguish yourself in someway from what others are doing.

Writing Content Couple of Simple Rules • Put Effort into Your Headings • 500 words (or shorter!) • Lists are OK (just not too many) • 1 idea per post • Don’t over engineer

Measure your response WordPress has some great statistical data. • Check it after each post. • Measure which posts receive the highest reader count. • Check which keywords where used to find you blog.

Let’s Get Social – Get Read Facebook Go Direct – OR Ping.FM Hootsuite

Getting Found Through The Web Post to Twitter & Facebook With HootSuite you can: • Post to multiple Twitter Accounts • Set feed url • Prepend all of your tweets • Set frequency of postings http://hootsuite.com

Getting Found Through The Web Post to Twitter & Facebook & LinkedIn &…… With Ping.FM you can: • Post to multiple Social Accounts • Shorten URL’s • Not as Fancy http://hootsuite.com

Getting Found Through The Web Use a Share Button on Each Post A “Share Button” allows visitors to share your information on multiple networks and through email http://www.addtoany.com/buttons/for/wordpress_com

www.CenterCars.com ---- Post to your social sites!

Best Practices • Make your opinion known • Link like crazy • Write less • 250 Words is enough • Make Headlines snappy • Write with passion • Litter the post with keywords • Include Bullet point lists • Edit your post • Make your posts easy to scan • Be consistent with your style • Create a system • Link to Your Social Sites

Assignment • Define a target audience • Research competition blogs • Research what customers are looking for • Define your Blog Team • Categories • Agree on Keywords • Discuss Schedule • Get Social

Upcoming Classes How to Setup and Promote Your Business using LinkedIn Less Than 20 Min a Day - 2010 Edition $99 - Starts Thursday – 6 Sears Left 2 – Part Class – Recorded & Live www.linkedin99.eventbrite.com How to Setup and Promote Your Business using Facebook Fan Pages – 2010 Edition $99 - Starts April 22 – Just Opened 2 – Part Class – Recorded & Live www.facebook4biz99.eventbrite.com

Let’s Connect! TWITTER: www.twitter.com/deandelisle FACEBOOK: www.Facebook.com/deandelisle FAN PAGE: www.Facebook.com/ForwardProgress LINKEDIN: www.LinkedIn.com/deandelisle dean@forwardprogress.NET

FORWARD PROGRESS