Twitter Lists and What I Learned

Going through my twitter list and seeing all the successful cupcake businesses I noticed that not only do they have twitter accounts but they have Instagram and Facebook accounts as well. When I looked at their instagram accounts I noticed that they were constantly updating photos of their business and beautiful cupcake creations. The cupcake businesses who did not post regularly had fewer followers were less engaging with the audience, and had no Instagram or Facebook. I think that shows that the better you know your target audience, and the more engaging you are the more success you will have in social media.

Twitter Lists: Cupcake Business

Every since I was little I have enjoyed cooking and baking with my mom. It has been a dream of mine to maybe someday open up my own cupcake/bakery. There are so many cupcake businesses out there and I found quite a few on twitter. A majority of the businesses I found were former Food Network winners on the hit TV show "Cupcake Wars". I noticed the cupcake businesses who had been on that show had a larger following on twitter than the ones who weren't on the show. Interesting enough the businesses with more followers have posts and pictures that are more professional and all around interesting. I also noticed that they were constantly tweeting questions like "What is your favorite cupcake filling?".  It really got the audience attention and they the majority of followers tweeted back as well.

Twitter list

Looking at the list on my class twitter account, I saw that the businesses are not only using twitter to post pictures but also their instagram accounts. This is letting me see that they are using multiple social networks, and integrating them into one account.

They are also retweeting people that tweeted to them. This is engaging people into their accounts, and allows the customers to feel closer to them.

Going through my twitter lists after thanksgiving break, I find lots of ads and promos for Black Friday. There were even some that went a week early. This makes me realize two things. One, guitar gear is just a luxury of life that people buy but do not need. Two, it is a business world that follows most of the consumer world trends. Being these two things, the guitar gear world runs sales and reduces their markup often. They attempt to use marketing schemes that everyone else does. Who uses a pedal. What tours a guitar went on. It makes me realize that people could be just business people and know nothing about guitar yet I am trusting them as experts in their field. I've learned to do my research and attempt to buy use when I need it. Not full price or slightly reduced when on sale. 

Following Tweets and what I learn

 After reading the tweets from different restaurants, I learned that there are different ways to get people to follow their twitter account. Ways to do that is ask the followers questions, create discussions so people can tweet back to the account, and place links on the tweet for people to click. I found that this could be beneficial for the companies allowing people to see them, and possibly remember them as well. Placing pictures with the tweets could also allow for the followers to relate better to the tweet.   

Twitter Assignment- Guitar Gear Blog

After reading many articles on guitar gear I have come to the conclusion that the mystified word “tone” is something that is completely subjective. There is no amount of money that can buy a certain device that makes a person have good tone. Therefore, all of these advertising schemes are great marketing campaigns but there is truly no right answer. There is no best compared to the rest. Talent is a human thing rather than a product thing and if I should invest in anything, it should be in lessons rather than gear. 

Benefits of Blogging

1.) It helps drives traffic to your website.
Every time you blog post you creating one more index page on your website. It is also one more cue to Google and other search engines that your website is active and they should be checking in regularly  to see what content you publish.

2.) It helps convert that traffic into leads.
Each new post is an opportunity to create more leads. This can simply be done by creating a lead generated call to action to every blog post. This can be anything such as free e books, free data sheets, and free trials, basically anything that involves the reader to share their information.

3.) It helps establish authority.
 The best blogs answer common questions their leads and customers have. If you are constantly posting content that is helpful and interesting to your target audience, it helps to establish a sense of authority in their eyes.

Once a business can understand the benefits of blogging there is no reason for not blogging regularly and with a specific purpose. Do you think these benefits are worth putting the time and effort into creating a blog?
Benefits of Blogging
         

Nebraska Furniture Mart: Blog or Website?

Back when we got our blog project, Prof. Wegley posted a link to our site about Nebraska Furniture Mart’s new blog. I took a few minutes and went through this blog as a business blog. In a sense, I was disappointed in it as far as a blog goes. The entire site was more of a website than a blog. It was eye appealing but it was set up as a website. Most pages had a video on it but all of them were professionally done- it wasn’t a single man and his camera. There were also obvious links inviting you to shop now for the products used in the video. In my opinion, this wasn't a blog as much of a website “Buy our products so you can use them this way!”

Should a business blog talk about new products out in the entire realm or should it be application to what their business is selling?

Time is Money But Your Investment is Worth It!

I was reading an article about how small businesses aren’t blogging or using social media in general. They stated that one cause of this is that small businesses have such an obviously limited budget (all budgets are limited but small businesses make a bigger deal about it but more on that at another time) that they do not find the instantaneous reward worth the investment. While the social media and blog are free to use, they take time to do well and thus be effective and this time is money and effort that small businesses don’t want to put in without seeing the immediate positive response. The author summarizes their thoughts with this: “In order to see results from blogging for your small business you have to commit to doing it like any other sales, marketing or operational effort. Having said that, I assure you that if you stay the course and focus on content that your buying audience wants to read, the results will come.” Like all aspects of businesses, social media is not a “get rich quick” scheme. You must be willing to invest and temporarily lose in order to ever see a reward.

So you want more people to read your blog?

So you are wanting more people to read your blog. Well this can be difficult for anybody, but there are a few tips for you to follow to gain more followers.

Invite people that you know to read your blog
Let people that you know know about your blog. They can share your blog with their friends which then allows your blog to gain a larger audience.

Allow people to comment on your blog
Allow people to put their opinions on your blog. People love talking about something that they want to say, and they always want more people to know what they are saying. Allowing people to comment on your blog will allow for discussion and people to follow what your are writing about.

Use good content on your blog
Don't just write to write. However, keep the content a good subject, and something that your readers will want to read about.

Allow others to blog on your blog about the same subject
When you collaborate with others this allows the writer not having to write every time. It also allows the readers to read other peoples writings so that they do not get bored of one person.

Join other social websites and share your blog
Join Facebook and Twitter. Doing this you can share your blog on your profile and allowing your friends and followers to find your blog easier.

Use social bookmarking tools
This is a tool that allows people to find your blog. Doing this can allow for people that you would have never had as an audience before find you.

Describe your blog in the keyword section


http://www.ehow.com/how_5823903_followers-blog.html

Audience Engagement and Feedback

This articles had a lot of great advice on the purposes of blogging and steps to growing a good blog. The two things that can really make an impact is simply to get inside the audiences head, and ask for their feedback. The purpose of the blog should be to please the audience, find out what they want to read. Every post should be exciting, new and eye catching to the audience. Also, asking the audience for feedback can be a great way to bring the audience in. The people reading the blog want to feel that they have a say and some type of input. Even asking for feedback on previous posts and asking the audience what topics they are interested in learning more about can make a big difference.

What questions do you think company blogs should ask their audiences?
 company blogging

The other 4 types of bloggers

As I mentioned in one of my last blogs I will be telling all of you the last 4 types of bloggers that are out in the world.

4. The Journal Writer
5. The Platform-Builder
6. The Product Promoter
7. The Freelancer

The journal writer.
These types of bloggers treat their blogs as a public journal to the world. They are seen as "old-school" bloggers. As in they write their blogs in a narrative tone, and tell a story to their readers. They use their blog more as a hobby than anything else, and have fun with their writing.

The Platform-builder.
These type of bloggers want to create a name for themselves with their blogs. They are wanting to create some type of income from their blog, and the readers will hardly ever see ads on these blogs.

The product promoter. 
These bloggers have something to sell to their readers, usually some type of book.

The Freelancer.
These bloggers get paid to write for a major site. These bloggers might specialize in a particular subject and have great insight on that subject.

Creating business blogs is not a new concept. However, most businesses either do not know how to create and effective one or have a blog but do not use it to its full potential. For many small businesses blogging can be an extremely great tool in building your social media foot print, establish your brand, or position yourself in an area of expertise. The ultimate benefit of business blogging is the opportunity to communicate your expertise to a mass of people and provide a resource for customers.  In recent years the big buzz words have been "content is king". However, in todays blogging world "platform is queen". Creating this platform is to create a social media presence and increase traffic of online searches for your company. Content is the message, but platform provides visibility and engagement with the audience.
Should a business focus more on content of their blog or more on just getting their name out there?
Building your business blog

Last week we talked about vlogs or video blogs. Today, we will go deeper into this. Some people don’t have the ability to do quality video but still desire to do something different than a traditional blog. One way to do this is to record audio only and then create “slides” or moving pictures on your computer to make a movie. It’s not a video of you but it is still a video with your voice with something like a power point presentation that you prepared. Almost every single computer you work at has the ability to do something like this. On PCs, try using Movie Maker or on a Mac, iMovie. As far as equipment goes, you only need a microphone and your computer.

Do you find that a vlog without video rather slides is as interesting as one of someone looking into the camera?

I was reading an article about “the next step” of blogging. Video Blogging. This is a type of blog that is always audio and usually video of a person that is sharing their thoughts on a subject. While blogging is essentially a paper that you write “nonchalantly”, there is much more work involved in video blogging. The article I read blamed this extra work of vlogging as the reason of it not taking off as well. So the question is, are you interested enough in a video blog to look into doing the extra work required or do you prefer the “traditional” style of blogging?

The different types of bloggers

There are about 7 different types of bloggers out in the world. With this blog I am going to focus on the first 3 types:

1. The Niche expert
2. The Business owner
3. The Professional blogger

1. The Niche expert.This type of blogger is someone who finds something that they truly enjoy and are good at. They write to their readers with an expertise on the subject, and allow their readers to feel as if they are learning something.

2. The Business owner. The business owner does not see their blog as the business, but as a marketing tool for their business. They allow their blog to become a go to place for their customers to learn about products, and about the business.

3. The Professional blogger.The professional blogger is a mixture of a niche expert and a business owner. They treat their blog as if it was a business, and they write about subjects that they are passionate about. They do use their blog to make money just like a business.

These are just 3 of the 7 different types of bloggers out in the world. Come back later and find out the other 4 types of bloggers, and you can figure out what kind of blogger you are.

http://writetodone.com/the-7-types-of-blogger-which-one-are-you/

Blog Contest

So your company wants to give things away? Try these tips on your blog and see what will happen.


1. Introduce A Great New ProductHold a contest to giveaway new products. Just because a company thinks that their product is the best new item on the market does not mean that people will spend the money to purchase the item. A company should allow people to have the chance to win the item, and then the winners can rant and rave about how much they love it. However, the item does need to be good. Word of mouth can either make or break a company and the product that they are trying to sell.

2. Reward Your Current Fan BaseDon't forget the rest of your fans on the blog that did not win. Still thank them for following the blog, and recognize that you (the company) value them.

3. Capitalize On Trends For SEO
Think of the best times to give items away. Holidays are a great time to do giveaways on a blog. Or think of minor holidays as well. People love the little things, and doing giveaways that correlate with a holiday may bring in more traffic for your business blog.

http://todaymade.com/blog/contest-giveaway/

This week I was reading an article titled “Why BloggingMatters to Businesses” and it talked about how blogs are meant to create a personal, relatable image for the business to market to their customers. It said to create an identity complete with a “voice” of the company. This made me think, what would I look for in a bloggers “voice”? Now I recognize that I would have no idea who is truly writing the blog, but would I relate to an individual better than a company? For example, if I could read Henry Ford’s blog about how the Ford Motor Company is doing, what ways they are being innovative in the automotive industry, indirect, subtle hints at how they are beating the competition, would I enjoy that more than a Ford Motor Company blog? (Please note, this is just an example and we should imagine that we are in the starting days of Ford, before Henry’s death.) I believe that I personally would prefer to read Henry’s blog to get a personal aspect of the company. I would have a name and a face to match up with writing instead of a company logo. What about you? What type of blog would you prefer to read? An individual’s or a company’s? 

Alternative Blogging Options

Most businesses have just a standard blog like WordPress, but did you know there are other options? Tumbler is a very easy blogging platform. With more than 100 million bloggers out there, Tumblr has an active group of users who are constantly searching for content based on keyword tags and phrases. This can help to build a stronger audience quickly. Also allowing users to post pictures, text, links, music, video through a desktop or even a phone. Tumblr works best for more visual businesses such as retail design, food, or fashion. Another great thing is Tumblr owners are allowed to link back to e-commerce sites with coupon codes, QR codes and links to other social media accounts. The templates are easy to manage and there is no download necessary.

Do you think tumblr could be a good alternative blogging site for a business? 

Finding Alternatives to Building a Website

Around the world, in every aspect of life, there are two types of people. The ones who are innovative and the ones who are trying to keep up. In business, this rule is no different. I was reading a blog about businesses who have successful blogs. In the first paragraph, the author said “you don’t have to reinvent the wheel—just model the best. Take a look at these thriving blogs and apply the same success strategies to your own blog.” At first this is a good idea. If someone is doing something well, why not do the same as they are? In traditional, face-to-face business, this could work and not raise any concerns because you would rarely copy the idea of a competitor that is right down the street. However, in the world of blogging, every website is just a click away from each other. Do you really want to copy a blog that is only a click away? If you are the copier, you will always be behind the innovator. I personally find it annoying when multiple websites are the same. So the question to draw all this together is this:

Do you think a startup blog should copy a successful blog?

Increase Blogging Traffic

    

Your blog title is extremely important. This is the first thing that people see, and how people will judge your blog. A title needs to be clear, direct, but creative.
The blog should have a purpose as well. The information needs to be educational, tell a story, or solve a problem. Mainly keep the blog simple for the readers.
Keep the URL to your blog short. No reader wants to have to remember a extra long URL to a blog. The URL needs to be simple, short, and easy to spell. As a blogger, do not spell words in different manners, making it hard for the readers to visit the site.
Photos, they are eye catching and allows the readers to see an image about what they are reading.
As a blogger, if you were to use these skills your blog could see an increase of traffic. So next time you blog, place photos, use a catchy title, and keep your URL simple.

10 ways to increase your blog traffic