Small Business Revitalization Blog

Via Flickr: Intersection Consulting

Marketing guru Seth Godin has said ‘Content marketing is the only marketing left.’   New technologies mean traditional mass media is fast being overtaken by brands as publishers of content.  It’s easy to publish content online, but much more challenging to achieve tangible business results (like sales!)  Why?

As a business coach, I see a common marketing mistake that many small businesses make – they mistake participating in social media for actually having a content management strategy.  Here’s seven reasons why small business owners need to start with the strategy rather than the social media networks…

1. Activity (or busyness) in social media domains does not equate to goal achievement. It’s expensive to create content (time and/or money) – if your content distribution strategy isn’t clear you’re shooting blindly and wasting valuable resources.
2. Publishing is now marketing and marketing is now publishing. Your influence stems from your value.  Your value stems from your content and your relationships.
3. Until you answer the why… e.g. What are the informational needs of my customers?  What pain points can my brand address?  What brand story are we telling?... your strategy will be incoherent and won’t deliver results.  Relevance is key.  Listening is core to success.
4. Google already pushes Twitter updates through their organic search results and in February 2010 it was announced that Facebook Fan Page content is next – what keywords, key messages and topics will you be found for? The rules for being found by organic search are changing quickly!
5. Without a clear and relevant content marketing strategy, you’ll attract followers who are irrelevant to your business – there’s no point having 50,000 followers if they aren’t in your target audience.  How do you feed your ‘ideal client’ into your traffic generation strategy?  With content your ideal client needs!
6. Productivity – without a clear strategy, there will be no clarity about how all the pieces of your social media marketing connect together… which means it’s impossible to manage the distribution and flow of content in a meaningful way for your prospects and partners.
7. The answer to every question you have about online marketing of your business will come back to ‘it depends… on your content marketing strategy.’  Without one, your ship is rudderless.

Want to explore how to develop an effective content management strategy for your business?  Attend the Revive Coaching Playshop in Brisbane on 8 October 2010 - Book today.

What is your best strategy for managing content?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Via Flickr: Annie Mole

If you are publishing content on a blog, you need a strategy.  Without one you are shooting at moving targets and missing opportunities to hit the triple jackpot of being visible, valued and visionary! John Batelle, creator of Wired magazine recently stated that for brands to stay relevant and develop a true online experience for their customers, they must master the art of content creation.

Here are a few tips to take the mystery out of blogging... whether you are a technophobe, unable to string a sentance together or just completely confused... ;-) successful blogging is possible!

• Blogging technology:  If your website does not have its own inbuilt blogging system (many content management systems do) then it’s better to use www.Wordpress.org with your own domain name rather than other free software.  You can use sites like Facebook or a Ning site as an alternative however you cannot use your own domain name and you lack control over your content – far from ideal!
• Content marketing strategy:  It’s essential to have a clearly developed content marketing strategy… why, what, how… etc! Without a strategy you’ll waste a lot of time and resources.
• Valuable content: You should only blog if you have plenty of valuable content that your target audience would be interested in.  Contrary to some of the advice out there, writing inane dribble about nothing won’t do you any favors in the search engines or elsewhere!
• Writing alternatives:  It doesn’t matter if you can’t write – use audio / video / photos and put just a few words around each idea.  Or, record your ideas and have someone transcribe and edit them.
• Developing connections: Get over the idea of ‘I don’t know what to write’ by talking to people about their challenges in the area your business serves.  Write about the solutions to those challenges in a way that invites people to respect you and share your ideas with others.
• Meeting deadlines:  invite other related professionals to ‘guest blog’ on your blog on a monthly basis – gives you more great content and they’ll probably promote your blog to their followers.
• Promoting your content: ensure you promote your blog posts in other social forums – ‘build it and they will come’ is generally only true in the movies!!!  Your blog offers the core content, social media are the outposts that create visibility.

Want to develop an effective content management strategy for your business?  Attend the Revive Coaching Playshop in Brisbane on 8 October 2010 - Book today!

What is your biggest challenge with blogging?  Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

At a recent business coaching gig for the KBN Ashgrove Network I talked about blogging.  So many business owners think they ‘should’ blog but in truth have no idea of where to start, why they are doing it or how to have their blog generate results.  

Some of the reasons you could choose to blog include:  

• Your clients will ‘get you’:  the less formal nature of blogging makes you a ‘real’ person in their eyes – who do people ultimately buy from?  People they have relationships with! Authentic communication beats a static website any day.
• You can create a forum for engagement with potential clients and others in your industry via ‘comments’.
• It is the foundation of your social media strategy. You have 100% control over your content… no-one can remove it or change it except you.
• Google rankings: regular blog posts create great link bait and encourage Google to search your site for fresh content more often.

There are many reasons to blog, but none of those matter if you can’t find a way to do it that works for you! In tomorrow’s post, we’ll explore some simple strategies that take the stress and confusion out of blogging.

Want to explore how to develop an effective content management strategy for your business?  Attend the Revive Coaching Playshop in Brisbane on 8 October 2010 - Book today.

What is your biggest challenge with blogging?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below.