TrendsTalk 2013 - What's in a name?

TrendsTalk 2013 - What's in a name from Katie Barnes

Once upon a blog ..

Once upon a blog there was a fairy blog mother who was able to teach you to write the best blog you have ever written. Now you ask how is that possible? Well through looking at major blog and thought leaders I have compiled a list of things that will help you reach the best blog post ever! Thought leaders such as Mitch Joel, Seth Godin and Bernedette Jiwa are experts when it comes to blogging. But how how are these experts in blogging and constantly writing blogs that are interesting as well as relevant? Here are a few tips on what you need to do to write a compelling blog.

Tips:

• Purpose
• Reliable schedule
• Size matters
• Title
• Write the way you talk
• Momentum

Purpose

First off, finding purpose needs to be what you think about before you take on writing your blog. You need to take into consideration who your audience is and what are there to see. Knowing what your reader wants before they ask for it is key. Finding a purpose and meaning behind your blog post will create a want for the reader to come back or read other posts by you.

Reliable schedule

Having a set day or time of day that you will be posting is also important. This way your reader knows when to check in and get their daily read. Not having a reliable schedule will result in the reader coming to your blog for nothing, they will think to come visit again later but may not again. You could lose readers. And even if you don't have time to really put a post up, this will make sure your schedule works around your posting time.

Size matters

Exactly what it says, size DOES matter. When it comes finding a topic or idea for your post no matter how much write about that idea make sure the post is valuable to the reader.  Another thing to keep in mind is knowing who your audience and how they like to take in information will also determine the length of your blog.

Title

What good is an interesting blog without a google title? Creating a good title will draw in a reader and make your post THAT much ore interesting. You want to entice them to read and a great title will do exactly that.

Write the way you talk

Writing like the human you are is a key tool that many forget. One needs to create a voice for themselves and this voice needs to be heard all throughout each post by this writer.e who you are because your readers are reading this based on what you have to say and how you say it. 

Momentum

And finally the last tip I have today is to create momentum. Within your blog posts you want to crate curiosity and triggers within the read. A good blog has a call to action referring the reader to keep tuned or read your other posts.

So now that you know what it takes to create a great blog, go out and try it yourself!

Scheduled thoughts

Twitter has introduced the idea of having pre scheduled tweets! Clever right? In my opinion I think that this is a very smart and strategic move for Twitter. Major brands and companies would be stupid to not take advantage of this opportunity. For example when Apple decides the release another update such as the most recent IOS 7 update this would be a great tool to use. Although they are already very active within their social feeds including twitter this would also help them to never miss a beat. In other accounts that aren't brands or companies this would also be very helpful for artists and musicians. Releasing the dates of tours, tours stops and new albums.

Overall this proves to be a very useful method for major companies but what are the downfalls. Would the followers of these companies react well to these pre planned tweets? A downfall that I would take into account is making these the tweets that is delivering to their audiences still can be perceived at personal and not "planned". Although it is key for breaking news, will these pre planned tweets be ideal for everyday tweets. In some cases I think yes. These tweets can be used to for periods that prove to be very busy for a company at certain times of the year. Such as a clothing brand during fashion week, while the whole team is busy working at the shows pre scheduled tweets can constantly keep the followers in the loop.

Thumbs up for pre scheduled tweets !

Your Klout score is now shown on Bing !

If you are previously familiar with Klout or a user of Klout this news may be very exciting for you. Bing had previously collaborated with Klout which is old news. But now when a user is search on Bing a "Snapshot" of your profile will be previewed. All social feeds that are connected to your Klout will be shown on your Bing preview.

In my opinion I think this is a very good tool added by Bing. When searching for someone and not knowing what social feeds that they are on and using this is a quick an easy way to find out. But what about the people that don't social feeds to be shown on the snapshot preview. If these options are available I think many people will be opt to use this option on Bing and not be afraid that someone will find them that are not supposed to. But then this goes back to common question, if certain people do not want to be found on social feeds then should they even be using them?  This is similar to my blog about Facebook privacy.

So what do you think, is this initialized tool going to a pass or a fail? I guess this question can only be answered by the people that are going to put this tool to use.

Ads on Instagram

To think we have all escaped to one of the only social media tools without advertisements, well unfortunately this is wrong. Ever since Instagram has been bought out and brought into Facebook it's no wonder everyone has been anticipating when ads are going to be included in instagram's photo stream.

Within the next few months Intsagram has let out we will begin to see advertisements from a "limited number of advertising firms" on odd occasions. Personally, I am not impressed. As a daily user of instagram a would prefer not have to sift through a group of advertisements just to look at some of my friends photos. They claim the videos and photos will be high quality and interesting. If I really wanted something that interesting to look at I would go find it myself. Now an app that I do enjoy to use as a platform to connect with friends through photos may not be as enjoyable anymore. Although I do understand why they have chosen to do this I am not happy. Being a user of Facebook and twitter already those two sites alone have enough advertisements that already get in the way of me connecting with friends, family and other aspects of my life.So in reality is this bold move going to increase revenue or send instagram to the dumps? I guess in the next few months only time will tell.

Want to learn more? click here.

Privacy isn't so private anymore

Exactly as the title of this post says, is privacy on social media all that private anymore? Facebook has recently announced that they have taken away the option of not making your account visible in that search bar. Anybody that searches you on Facebook will be able to find you whether you like it or not. With that option gone facebook encourages users to fix their privacy settings on their photos, posts etc.

There are alot of people that had previously used that option, and now with it gone how will they be able to hide? With the previous option enabled it is obvious that this option was chosen by the user for a reason. With privacy getting less and less private users will most likely be less inclined to continue using their facebook account and even suggest it to friends. Curious to learn more? Click Here.

It states in this video that people who choose to use social media have chosen to be social and should not have the option to hide. Though this feature was still used Facebook took it away anyways. Should the users that still had this option enabled have a choice or getting rid of it or not? I'm sure this topic will be all the rage the next few weeks so stay tuned.

Content Marketing

"Curate the voices of many"

When creating appropriate content even though the content you write is different for every situation they should all have one thing in common. With that being said it is important to create content that consists of many different voices and many different outlooks. Creating content in this fashion will not only help you gain more customers but these customers will be happy with what they are reading and respect it. When one is obtaining content the writer must keep in mind what they want to learn and how they want to learn it.  Using a narrow point of view can lose respect of those taking in the information. One-sided content will only set you 3 steps backwards instead of forwards. As many different points of view is the best way to go as these people will not want to feel mislead. Creating content from many different voices will create a more intimate relationship with your user, as they will feel more comfortable referring to your content in the future. As an example this blog will contain content from many different sources that won’t have similar voices.

"Chat with customers"

Creating a good relationship with your prospect, current, and previous customers is a good strategy in any business practice and of course another great tool in writing good content. Keeping in constant contact with your customers not only benefits you but also your company, your reputation and what you are able to deliver to your consumers. When it comes to content customers know what they want to see and don’t want to see. Getting this information through social media, surveys, email etc. will help the customer’s needs and wants be portrayed through the content that you produce. While chatting with you customers a basis of trust and respect on both ends is created and this is important in content marketing. The customer wants to know that they are heard and what they are saying is important.

         

              

                                         GOOD CONTENT = HAPPY CUSTOMER

“Check out your competitors”

This means quite simply what it says. In most cases a competitor is your biggest weakness. First off how can you know what makes your competitor a competitor if you don’t know what hey are. It’s important to know who these people are, what they do and what kind of content they produce. Checking out your direct and indirect competitors may not seem like a high priority task but in reality it is. How can you know how to get your customers to read your content when you don’t know what’s drawing them in or away to it. Competitors are also a good contrasting tool, being able to decipher the contrast will help you create compelling content. Creating content that is more relevant, more enticing, and fresher then your competitors will make you the winner and your competitor the loser.

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Now that we know a few tips that will get us on the ball of writing good content, now we should question how important good content really is. The quote above I had taken from the content marketing institute website. And in this quote it states that content when it is done right will engage, attract and distribute to it’s customers.  If simple writing good content can do all this then why not? Creating more buzz for your company profits will go up. Good content is only one more step to success !