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Challenge

Get Found! One Way Your Business Blog is an Inbound Marketing Platform

by Bethany on January 19, 2012

in Advanced Blogging, Blogging for Leads, Inbound marketing

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If your online marketing strategy includes corporate blogging, then I have one challenge for you concerning your blog. Remember from my last article, we are supposed to remember to internalize the idea that our corporate blogs are to gain leads. On that note, I have a word I want you to concentrate on (a phrase really) that makes marketers drool: inbound marketing.

Content Makes Your Blog a Foundation for Inbound Marketing

Seriously? Yes. Seriously. But you have to use it the right way. And that comes down to the content. I have read so many blog articles and books about the importance of content, and I agree with them. Content should be informative, helpful, funny, inspire awe, and yes, content is king. I get it. But there are so many blogs and websites out there that it seems like all the good content has been taken up. It can be a little discouraging. At times, it can even be daunting. But the truth is, in order for your blog to be a foundation for inbound marketing, in order for people to want to share it with others, your content needs to be really, really good. So good, in fact, that people will want to share it. And that takes time.

An Inbound Marketing Challenge for You and Your Blog

Now, before I scare you anymore, I have an answer for this so it doesn’t seem so daunting. It’s based on the writings of one of my favorite bloggers, Leo Babauta, who blogs over at Zen Habits. After reading his blog for several years, it’s clear to me that we need to apply one of his mantras about creating healthy habits to this whole blogging thing: just do one thing at a time. So I’m going to give you a challenge for your business blog: plan ONE really cool piece of content.

One really cool piece of content can help make your blog THE foundation for inbound marketing that it can be. My biggest piece of advice about this one really cool piece of content, is that you make it embeddable (implicitly shareable) content. What happens with embeddable content is that people reuse it! When they do that, that content gets pointed back to your blog or website!

Share and Make Shareable

Consider this really cool piece of content an artifact. It is an artifact of your business. So treat it like gold. Here are some things you are going to want to do with that artifact during its “life”time:

  • Make sure to create the metadata (tags) for it
  • Support it yourself by posting it to sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, etc.
  • Ask your friends, followers, and fans to share it, tweet it, repost it for you
  • Make sure you have your social sharing buttons enabled in the post in which it belongs

Slow down for a minute and realize the importance of REALLY good SHAREABLE content. Stop writing and rehashing the stuff you’ve already seen online. Take the time this week, this month (however long it takes depending on how much time you have) to create a really shareable piece of content, a piece of content that you can place in your blog post as say, an image, an infographic, a video, a PDF – and be sure you include credit to your website in a way that is not easily removed from the content. A piece of content that really, truly is a help in some way to your customers. Then come back and let us know what you did, and how it worked for you.

You can do it! I know you can!

Thanks to Funchye at Flickr for the great sharing photo

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Facebook Fiasco – how to turn negative into positive

by Tom Williams on November 7, 2008

in Facebook, Interviews, Oops!!, Social Media, Strategy

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“Fiasco” is probably a bit harsh…but the truth is many colleges are afraid of a social media “Fiasco”.  You know how it goes…you do a quick cost / benefit analysis where you can’t quantify the benefits but the potential costs seem readily apparent.  Management’s decision is simple and easy – Stay Away from Social Media!

I recently interviewed Rachel Reuben, Director of Web Communications at SUNY New Paltz.  Rachel has recently gone through a challenging situation with the New Paltz Facebook page, where she had to make some tough decisions.  I wanted to share this case study with you in hopes of dispelling some of the fear of Social Media.  Here is how one university encountered a situation, dealt with it appropriately and came out ahead.

On Oct 26th, the following post appeared on the college Facebook Wall.  For those who are unfamiliar, the Wall is an open forum where anyone can post and anyone can respond.

I’ve called, I’ve e-mailed and I’ve visited just to get my one question answered about Communication Disorders. It was finally answered at the open house but I was again presented with the extremely smug attitude that I got on the phone and via e-mail. I love the area and would have loved to live there while attending school but after the terrible unfriendliness I’ve experienced I no longer want to attend your school. I am so disappointed that you would treat prospective students in such a way.

A posting such as this may be enough to send some admission offices into a tail spin.  The folks at SUNY New Paltz, however, kept their heads on straight.  They did NOT delete the posting, even though they had the power to.  Instead, they responded to it:

We’re genuinely sorry to hear about your experience, and quite surprised as well. The Office of Undergraduate Admission and the Welcome Center strive to provide excellent customer service to every prospective student and visitor we talk to, e-mail, and meet. It’s extremely rare we hear this kind of feedback, but do appreciate you taking the time to do so, and for visiting us yesterday.

This was a brilliant response.  They didn’t fire back, they apologized and in doing so, took the higher ground and defused the anger.  They also took the opportunity to point out that a bad experience is a rare event.  This genuine response to a negative comment actually builds credibility with readers.  They ended the post with a “thank you” – very well done New Paltz team.

However, just when they thought it was over, this post showed up from another person just 4 hours later:

I remember the smug, nastiness of the staff when I attended there. That doesn’t surprise me. However, the campus is beautiful, the atmosphere is inspiring, and the courses offered are intriguing.

At this point, Rachel and the team realized they needed to take a different approach – quickly.  The last thing you want is a huge dialog with a dissident.  That just provides more and more opportunity for negativity and increases the chances that you will “fight back”.

The tactic used  was “ignore and bury.”  First, the team wrote a lengthy informational wall post to push it down from the top of the wall.  They reached out to their student bloggers and asked them to “promote” their latest blog on the wall.  Out of luck, a random student posted a question to which the team provided a fast response.   In less than 24 hours, the negative comments had been pushed off the screen into the archived detail, virtually eliminating their visibility.

Here is a recap of how to deal with negative wall posts that we learned in this case study:

Do:

Respond appropriately to the person, apologize, discuss the matter honestly, say you will take action, thank them for their post.  If the negativity starts gaining momentum, quietly and tactfully bury the postings.

Do NOT:

Retaliate, justify, minimize or scoff at the writer.  Most importantly, unless there is foul language or content that vioates your policies – DO NOT delete the posting as censoring breeds distrust.

It’s important to note that New Paltz has 670 Wall posts on their Facebook Page.  This is the first time they have encountered “in your face” negative comments.  This means that 99.7% of the time, the postings were positive.  0.3% of the time they were not.  I like those odds.

Has anyone else experienced a Facebook moment like this?  How about something similar on a blog comment or twitter?  Please share with us how you dealt with it!

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