Corporate. Mitchjoel. Spam. Cleeng. Is Blogging Evolving Into Life Streams? Top Bloggers Spend Less Time Blogging I’ve noticed a gradual change in what we know as blogs when Scoble and Shel wrote the book on Naked Conversations. Both of them are now focused on micromedia: Shel has an upcoming book on Twitterville, and Scoble spends more time promoting Friendfeed than his own blog. Secondly, I just learned that Edelman’s top blogger Steve Rubel has retired his traditional blog, and it’s now a life stream, which aggregates content from any source. Of course, I don’t need to mention that many of the top 100 blogs all look like mainstream media, with a team of writers, photographers, and editors. It seems as if blogging is becoming old hat, or at least evolving into something smaller, faster, and more portable. More Lifestreams Mean More Noise As more and more people create content on microchannels, we experience more ambient intimacy, but also a lot more data.
Steve Rubel’s switch to using Posterous (the tool that fuels his lifestreaming) makes sense for him. Social Media and PR across Asia. Guest blogging: Looking for guest bloggers or guest post? Join MyBlogGuest! Ghost Blogging And Last Rites. If there's one debate that never gets tired, it's the one about Ghost Blogging. We've come to this strange intersection with Social Media where companies want to Blog, but they feel like their CEO (or others within the company) would best be served if that voice was created by a ghost writer. It's an issue that irritates me because I don't agree with it, but I do understand why businesses do it (hence my frustration). Mark W. Schaefer (over at Grow) had a great Blog post titled, Why It's Ridiculous To Argue About Ghost Blogging, that ran contrary to a post I had published on this Blog titled, The Death of Social Media (which focused on executives now hiring individuals to tweet for them on Twitter).
Mark and I decided to have a debate about the topic, which culminated in this audio Podcast: Six Pixels of Separation - Episode #214 - The Ghost Blogging Debate With Mark W. Schaefer. The Long Tail kicked in today. My two main reasons for not liking Ghost Blogging: What do you think? Shameless Blog Promotion: your ritual after writing a post. My Advice to Beginning Bloggers. Recently, my daughter Marissa asked my advice on starting a blog. What I told her is very different from what I would have said a year ago. Many experienced bloggers might disagree with me, but I thought I would share my advice here. Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/melastmohican Many people get excited about blogging. Should you go with a hosted blogging platform WordPress.com or a self-hosted one like WordPress.org.If self-hosted, which hosting service should you use to host it? The number of decisions can be overwhelming. People often decide to jump immediately to self-hosted WordPress.
WordPress.org is enticing, because the basic software is free and you can get space on a server for as little as $6.95 a month. But don’t be deceived. I spend more than $1,000 a month on my blog. This amount includes hosting, server administration, custom programming, software services, trouble-shooting, and more. The truth is that most people who start a blog quit within a few months. 10 Steps to Successful Video Blogging. Have you considered video blogging? In the age where online reality is replacing actual reality in every facet of our lives, having YOUR face behind YOUR virtual real estate is paramount for people to feel close(er) to you. This blog post will be your comprehensive guide. Why Video Blogging? Video blogging helps you build connections with your viewers like no other blogging format. The close second is perhaps audio. A case in point is Michael Stelzner.
The usual excuses given are “I don’t have the right equipment” or “it takes too much time” or “I’m not entirely sure how the whole process works.” In this article, I’ll show you the minimal, yet crucial, amount of equipment you’ll need and the quick and dirty way of getting your videos out there in record time. So let’s get started. Shooting a Video #1: Audio It may seem bizarre to start an article about online video blogs by talking about audio, but “hear” me out. If the audio sucks, no-one will watch your video. . #2: Lighting #3: Camera My point? How to Write Effective Blog Posts. Professional Blogging For Dummies Cheat Sheet. Cheat Sheet Maybe you have an idea for a blog but aren't sure where to start to make it a reality. Perhaps you already have a blog but are looking for ways to expand your audience and make money from it. Improve your game by setting your blogging objectives, getting to know what types of content most blogs contain, developing an editorial mission, and discovering ways to make money from your blog.
Finally, consult a handy checklist to make sure you have all your blogging bases covered. Setting Your Professional Blogging Objectives The first step in your professional blog plan is to define your goals and objectives, just as you would with any business endeavor. Who are you trying to reach? Getting to Know the Common Types of Blog Content For your professional blog, you can use multiple types of blog content, although you probably want to limit yourself to one or two. Essay: Stories, sketches, and anecdotes about daily life.
Creating an Editorial Mission for Your Blog Monetizing Your Blog. Blogging For Dummies Cheat Sheet. Cheat Sheet When you start a new blog, one of your most important decisions is choosing what blog software to use. You also need to decide what type of blogger you’ll be. Is there a certain niche that would be a great fit to match your interests and expertise? Whether you’re a new blogger or looking to switch blogging platforms, the range of blogging tools and options you find here can give you a head start on your search for your blogging software and blog niche match. Selecting Hosted Blogging Software When you choose to blog using a hosted blog service, you don’t need to worry about the software technology at all. What Kind of Blogger Do You Want to Be? Congratulations, you've decided that you want to enter the blogosphere and dive into the fun, new hobby of blogging!
Blog Software Applications You might want to run your own blogging system right from the beginning. If You Only Do *Three Things in Social Media. As noted earlier, “Social Media Monitoring” is the ONE THING every company ought to be doing in Social Media. “Setting a Social Media Policy” is #2. What’s the next biggest priority? Blogging. This answer is probably more controversial now than it was in the past, when blogging was all the rage (pre-Twitter, pre-Facebook). After all, success stories like @ComcastCares and @Zappos might suggest that an active Twitter presence is a short-form, high-speed, perfectly valid alternative to blogging. Blogging is, after all, a slow & muddy slog. Yea. But here’s why it’s worth doing: Blogging gives your company a voice. Starting a blog DURING a crisis is a crappy way to start a blog. In this same vein, blogs are a better place to direct people than your corporate website.
Whoa! No need to convert them right away. Blogging enforces respectfulness. Blogging is timeless. Blogging, however, is not, actually, cool. Blogging enforces content creation. Any good blogger will feel the same way. 5 Ways to Make Friends with Strangers on Your Blog | Blogging and Content Creation | Social Media Consulting - Convince & Convert. 5 Ways to Use Social Media to Amplify Your Content.
Your Blog Isn’t Special And You Have No Followers - SMG Helps Business Navigate the Social Web. There is a quaint notion surrounding social media that ‘everyone is special and every voice matters’. This viewpoint is a powerful one: that every voice has an equal footing and every one deserves an equal audience. Every blog post, every tweet, every Scribd and Digg and Delicious item on the net needs a watch. Needs to be thought over. Responded to. Engaged with. “Whether you have a million readers or just a dozen,” goes the refrain, “your voice is just as important.” That’s a very nice, warm and comfortable notion. But it’s wrong. The plain truth of it all when it comes to social media for your organization; some people matter, some people don’t. Okay. Communications and Marketing do not have unlimited funds and one-on-one relationships can scale only so far. Don’t get me wrong, if there is a real problem being discussed online, then it doesn’t matter who points it out, you need to act as soon as you can to fix it.
Consider: Is the complaint arising from a customer? A Blog is a Better Social Media Hub Than Twitter. If you're relying on Twitter as your social media hub, you're limiting your potential for impact and influence. Twitter is excellent for distribution, but if you're going to communicate original ideas, you'll need a blog (or something similar). The most influential people on Twitter are either already celebrities, create their own content, or both.
Who do you see most often retweeted? Major news outlets like CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Mashable. Here are a handful of the many reasons a blog gives you more control and more power: With a blog, you control the agenda, whether you're communicating on behalf of a company, or for personal reasons. There are many popular blogging applications. A developer-hosted blog, such as a WordPress.com blog, takes just a few minutes to set up and is free for basic use with optional paid enhancements. A great application that offers nearly all of the functionality of a blog is Tumblr. The Benefits of Writing a Blog | Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. The promise, risks and reasons for liveblogging. 17 Statistics to Monitor on Your Blog [Day 30 - 31DBBB] " » Basic Do’s and Don’t’s for Corporate Bloggers" from Pro PR. I was asked to provide some advice on Corporate Blogging Do’s and Don’t's for an upcoming article in the Globe and Mail.
Here’s what I suggested: DO’s Listen first. Social media is about communities of interest. Before you start writing, you should find your online community. Who writes about the things you care about? Write about things you are passionate about. After the rush of the first few posts is over, it may become harder to generate posts. Give without asking for a return. Social media is propelled by the desire we all have to connect with people who share our interests and with whom we feel some attachment.
Keep it positive. The world is full of too many sarcastic, snide, flip people. Be patient and persistent It will take time for your community to find you. DON’T’s Don’t use a ghostwriter. Social media is about real people connecting with real people. Don’t fake it. Social media is propelled by millions of people sharing with one another. Don’t give up. Meet the blogger, read the blog: five top tips to help readers get to know you « Brendan Cooper - Your friendly PR social media planner. Often, when going through blogs – as I do for example when looking at entries in the PR Friendly Index – I want to know more about the bloggers.
I find it interesting to see what they do for a living, what they’re trying to achieve with the blog, and what sort of content to expect, as it all helps me decide whether or not to subscribe. But hardly any of them include this. Some don’t even have category/tag lists/clouds so it’s pretty much impossible to figure out what they’re about without spending a long time monitoring them or ploughing through their archives. If I want to subscribe, these shortcomings could put me off. So, here’s my top five list of things to include in your blog to make prospective subscribers’ lives easier: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. I’m never shy of currying favour with top bloggers so I’ll point you to Neville Hobson for the best example I’ve come across of how to do this properly. And if anyone points out that I don’t actually have all of this on my own blog, then well done. Blogger and Webmaster Tools and Tips.
How I Made the Blog A-List (And You Can To) It's official -- according to Technorati, and to Kineda's cool A-List Bloglebrity tool which uses it, I am now an A-List blogger: Now, that might not be all that interesting to you, except that I'm about to tell you exactly how I did it, and without working at it nearly as hard as Technorati suggests you might have to. Technorati described their authority groupings in last October's State of the Blogosphere: The Very High Authority Group (500 or more blogs linking in the last 6 months) [aka, "The A-List"] In the final group we see what might be considered the blogging elite. This group, which represents more than 4,000 blogs, exhibits a radical shift in post frequency as well as blog age. Bloggers of this type have been at it longer – a year and a half on average – and post nearly twice a day, an increase in posting volume of over 100% from the previous group.
Guess what... The Basics - Write well, write often. Now... let's not stop here. 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger - lifehack.org. I have noticed that the most successful bloggers online have all taken similar steps in becoming great bloggers. After lotsof research and study, I can also tell you that blogging is much more complex than it seems to be on the surface. However, with a bit of effort, I believe anyone can become a successful blogger. Here are 101 steps to becoming a better blogger… 1. First, I’m going to assume you’re using WordPress. You are using WordPress aren’t you? The built-in SEO and pinging functions make WordPress a search engine machine. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
Install these plugins to optimize your blog: 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. Top Ways to Monetize Your Blog: 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81.
Blog Writing Tips: 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. Newbie's guide to Twitter | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone. If you're not using Twitter yet, you may feel as if you've missed out. Twitter has not only tipped the tuna, but by some estimations, it has already jumped the shark. Don't be put off by its excessive popularity with SXSW geeks or by the whining of Twitter haters who missed the fun.
Twitter is an interesting and practical real-time messaging system for groups and friends. It's just not completely obvious how to get into the "club. " So, here's a newbie's guide to this new platform. We don't cover every feature of Twitter, but this should help get you started. What is Twitter? Twitter is an online service that enables you to broadcast short messages to your friends or "followers. " Twitter is designed to work on a mobile phone as well as on a computer. Twitter is useful for close-knit groups (although there also are some fairly large mobs on Twitter). If you enter items into Twitter, they can be private, so only friends you've authorized can see them. Twitter is free. How to get started. Micro Persuasion: Ten Blogging Hacks. The Clip Report: An eBook on the Future of Media In the early 1990s when I began my career in PR there were clip reports.
These were physical books that contained press clips. It seems downright archaic now but that’s how I learned about the press - by cutting, pasting up and photocopying clippings. My fascination with the media never abated. Today my role is to form insights into how the entire overlapped media landscape - the pros, social channels, and corporate content - is rapidly evolving and to help Edelman clients turn these learnings into actionable strategies.
Today I am re-launching my Tumblr site with a new name, a new focus and a new format. It all kicks off today with a 15-page installment of The Clip Report. Disruptive Conversations: Design Requirements for a Corporate Blog Portal, v1.0 - what else do you think should be there?