The Basics for a Successful Blog

When creating a company blog, it is important to keep these 5 useful tips in mind:

1) Have original content that is focused and helpful

2) Offer lots of lists

3) Cross promote

4) Easy to navigate

5) Have prominent subscription options

When you’re ready to start your blog, make sure you pick one blog site instead of dividing your resources between many. You’re already busy, why make it harder on yourself? It can also be hard to keep track of various blog sites and what you have posted, and to establish a following.

Blogger.com is a great website when starting out as it’s easy to begin, as all you need is your name and email address. Once your account is set up (this takes a matter of seconds), you can start blogging! It is clearly laid out how to blog using only text, or to make use of pictures, links, videos and more great tools! By using pictures and videos especially you can get people sharing and talking, which increases your followers and your credibility.

Also try to blog often (at least once a week). This increases your chance of turning up in a search engine and can also increase your credibility.

More tips are given in our fantastic Social Networking class, which is offered across Ontario. For a full course description as well as course dates and locations, visit http://www.escomputertraining.com

Best Practices in Social Media - Part 2

In our last blog post we discussed several important practices when trying to build an effective Twitter and LinkedIn account. Today we will discuss Blogs, Forums and Facebook.

With regard to Blogs and Forums, it is best to blog once or twice a week to maintain reader interest. When first starting out, it is important to firmly establish your relevance and what your content will be centred around. After you have established yourself as an expert in a certain field then you can stray from your main topic.

In order to find readers, they have to find you! Make sure you broadcast your blog all over Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Tumblr and any other social media websites you use, as well as your personal and/or company website. The more the better!

Facebook has become one of the most important social networking website for personal and business use alike. If you use it for both, make sure that you have separate accounts for both as it can be difficult to monitor not only what posts and pictures you publish but also what your friends publish to your account.

It is important to fill in your profile as much as possible and, if using it for business purposes, to include professional headshots and office shots in a photo album.

Creating a Page and a Group can be highly effective. Make sure your friends know about their existence and are sharing with their friends!

It is important to search for contacts frequently and also to update your page often with interesting and relevant news, blogs, etc as people will often check their Facebook at least once per day.

Be sure that you're selective in what you broadcast as it can be easy to lose track of who you have "friended" on Facebook.

Good luck in your social networking endeavours and be sure to check out our Facebook page for helpful social networking tips and tricks: http://www.facebook.com/escomputertraining

Happy networking!

Social Media CAN Grow Your Business. Here's How.

With new technology emerging constantly and our online social network consistently growing, it is important to use social media as a valuable tool in growing your business. Here are six ways that social media helps you to grow your business in a timely and cost-effective manner.

1.      Quick to Start. You could launch a Facebook page today or get a blog going in a few days.

2.      Low Cost. You can get started in social media and blogging for very little or no money. They are among the most cost-effective methods of reaching your audience.

3.      Instant Interactivity. Both blogs and social media can give you nearly instant market feedback - good or bad. We get all kinds of feedback through the comments on our blog; people also leave reviews and other comments for us on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media channels.

4.      It's the Search Engines, Silly. Surveys indicate that 90% or more of people begin their purchasing process in search engines. Blogs and social media make it more likely that your prospects will find you online when they search.

5.      Inbound Marketing. If you read our blog, you know that we're big fans of inbound marketing at HubSpot. Outbound marketing is telemarketing, direct mail, cold email blasts (not lovely nurturing emails like this one to you), TV and print ads - all the things that buyers tend to block out more and more.  Social media and blogs are essential inbound marketing tools.

6.      First Mover Advantage. For blogs and social media, there is an advantage to moving first. If you don't jump into the conversation, your competitors will (if they have not already) and then you're fighting an uphill battle to become influential in these online conversations. Start now to claim that first-mover advantage.

Web Source
www.hubspot.com

Is Your Blog Networked?

          “Bring your blog to Facebook and Facebook to your blog.” Though most people use Facebook only for “traditional” actions –finding and keeping in touch with friends, sharing photos and videos and planning events- there is so much more to this incredible social networking tool. One feature in particular, the application “NetworkedBlogs,” allows you to connect with all blog authors who have linked their blogs to this Facebook app. The great thing about NetworkedBlogs is that you can use it to establish a newsfeed that only contains content from blogs you’re interested in and have therefore subscribed to, so it is a highly effective tool for everyone, not just those with blogs.

As there are over 3000 blog categories on NetworkedBlogs and over 1.6 million monthly users, there is no shortage of information for those following or looking to follow blogs. It is relatively easy to find blogs of interest to you, especially when you first sign up as they ask you to follow your first 5 blogs and as such will suggest some fairly popular and relevant blog sites.  In addition, authors often attach tags to their blogs when posting in NetworkedBlogs so if you search for a topic of interest to you you’re likely find a blog on that topic fairly easily.

For more information about a variety of social networking media, follow this blog and our Twitter account (http://twitter.com/#!/anneleroux ) and check out our Facebook pages and groups (search ES Computer Training). Happy blogging!

“Video Killed the Radio Star” and Video Blogging Killed the TV Star

With the availability of the Internet, consumers expect that they will have information about the brands they buy and the people behind them readily available as well. Though blogging is often used by businesses and consumers alike, video blogging can also be an effective way to share information about a business or product. There are not many corporate video bloggers, so video blogging is a great opportunity to get your name (and face) out there.

By using videos, it is easier to create a more personal connection between you (and/or your product or service) and your viewers (and potential customers). When viewers get a glimpse of your personality, mannerisms, etc., they feel that they know you and experience a stronger feeling of trust.  Trust is crucial when consumers are trying to pick a product or service to spend their money on.

According to a comScore Internet survey, YouTube is now the number 2 search engine, and it has been found by a recent Forbes/Google survey that 75+% of C-level executives watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week.

Not only is video blogging effective, it is also economical. All that is needed is any kind of camera (webcam, video camera, etc) as well as a room with some sort of lighting. Once your video is created, it’s easy to upload your video to a large number of sites, including Vimeo, YouTube and DailyMotion.

Here are some tips before you try your hand at video blogging:
1. Move focus from your product to unique content
Viewers are constantly looking for new and interesting material when viewing videos online. If viewers gain a more positive take away from your material, it’s more likely they’ll remember you and your brand.

2. Choose a video format and stick with it
Make it easier for yourself and your viewers to stick with your video blog – pick one format to use (i.e. quick tips, product reviews, etc) and stick with it. It can be exhausting and complicated to try and maintain different concepts.

3. Show your true personality 
It will be obvious to viewers when you aren’t showing your true self on your video blog. Allow yourself to be authentic and to make small mistakes (viewers can find this endearing!) and anything that sets you apart from other video bloggers will keep viewers coming back for more!

4. Market and promote this video blog (vlog)
Though it is often assumed, it isn’t often the case that because you have posted it online it will be found. Use other media that you’re online with (your website, blog, social networking websites) to promote your video blog and create noticeable and memorable headlines for your videos to grab viewers’ attention.

You may also find this article and video helpful about how to get the most out of Youtube Editor: http://mashable.com/2011/04/03/how-to-youtube-editor/

How to Save Time on Twitter

It can be difficult to find the time to maintain an interesting and informative Twitter account in order to obtain new followers and maintain existing ones.

With over 65 million tweets every day, Twitter can be an important tool for businesses if used effectively. Here are some tips on how you can use Twitter effectively without having to spend much of your time doing so:

1. Follow other's lists
Lists are often used to keep up with what is happening in industries you are interested in and to connect with relevant people. Sites such as "Listorious" can be used to search other people's lists by topic (for example, you could search fashion to find a large number of users relating to that industry).
Once you have found these lists, be sure to follow the accounts you find most interesting so you can receive relevant information.

2. Use Microlists
Once you start to follow more people, it can be hard to absorb all the information you receive in your Twitter feed. By creating microlists of key people to follow, you can easily stay on top of the information they are tweeting. For example, you could have a microlist just for news sources and journalists, one for businesses relating to your industry, etc. As you follow new people, you can also add them to your lists as appropriate.

3. Make Use of of Keywords and Hashtags
These features make it easy to find relevant information currently trending on Twitter. They allow you to quickly scan for content that you find interesting and would like to retweet for your followers. Also, if you use keywords and hashtags you will turn up in the searches of other users.

4. Use Existing Content
Chances are you already have a company blog and/or website. These contain lots of great content you've already researched and written about. An effective way to catch people's attention is to use quotes from the article as tweets and link back to that specific blog in the tweet.

5. Use Tools to Make Routine Processes Automatic
There are many routine activities on Twitter that can be automated. Tools can be used, such as SocialOomph, to send an automated direct message to your followers thanking them. Ping.fm lets you update various statuses (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, etc) at the same time from one site.
You can also develop tweets in bulk and schedule them to go out later using tools such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Twaitter.

6. Share the Work
If you are a company of more than a few people, you most likely have several employees that are trustworthy enough to tweet and maintain other social networking profiles on behalf of the company. Set some ground rules, review protocol and outline what you hope to achieve with Twitter, then let them try it out. Monitor their tweets to make sure they are representing your company correctly.

7. Experiment!
Rather than spending all your time planning, start trying new things. Have your employees each write blog posts and then spend time going over them, commenting on them and promoting them. Use your time to increase your company's exposure instead of tediously planning how to do this.

Happy tweeting!