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- 5 Epic Blogging Lessons Learned from Parenting Five Rowdy Kids
This guest post is by Ruth Zive Ruth Zive Copywriting.
Most of my readers and clients know me as a freelance copywriter and content marketing strategist. But the truth is, I'm operating under cover; my real identity is SuperMom to a brood of five rowdy children (including one that is a wee bit chromosomally enhanced).
I'm actually not that “super,” but I'm most certainly Mom, first and foremost. It's a busy, messy, loud, hectic, demanding, and unbelievably rewarding job. Each of my five children has taught me valuable lessons that have informed all aspects of my life. Because of my kids, I am a better human being—and definitely a more effective professional.
There is a lot of crossover in my life—my work blends into my mom-related duties, and vice versa. My children have taught me a lot about blogging, writing, social media, and content marketing strategy (albeit an inadvertent effort on their part).
Hopefully these five epic blogging lessons, learned from parenting five rowdy children, will help you to gain traction and grow your online presence.
1. Stick to a schedule
Between dance lessons, basketball practice, speech therapy, school carpools, high school exams, doctor appointments, and parent-teacher interviews, it goes without saying that my head would explode if I didn't stick to a schedule.
And forget about my sanity; my children thrive with a routine.
Takeaway
Similarly, you will create a sense of momentum with your blog if you settle into a routine—and you can incorporate this fundamental discipline in a variety of ways. For instance, you’ll want to:
- Map out an editorial calendar and write your posts predictably. Not only will you be more productive, your readers will come to appreciate your routine and will know when to visit your site for new content.
- Plan your blogging time strategically—make sure to budget time for writing, reading, commenting and social media.
- Work your blogging priorities into the rest of your daily schedule. Don’t forget to leave time for personal interests and priorities and other work-related responsibilities.
It took me a while to settle into a predictable routine (heck, life’s rarely predictable with five children). But going through these motions helped me to be much more productive and focussed as a mom and a writer.
2. Know your audience
I often have to tailor my parenting style to the unique interests of the specific child I am addressing.
One of my kids will follow instructions only if we make eye contact and I resort to threats and bribery. My youngest daughter, on the other hand, needs a lot of handholding and coddling, no matter the circumstance. And the middle child will do pretty much anything as long as it involves chocolate.
Takeaway
Your blog readers will invariably share certain qualities and it's important to know what those are; but remember that they also have unique interests. Segment your target market accordingly and be flexible in your style to accommodate their needs.
For instance, on my blog, I’m essentially appealing to three different target markets:
- independent copywriters and bloggers
- c-level and marketing executives
- independent business owners and entrepreneurs.
All three groups are interested in learning more about content marketing strategy.
But I tweak my focus, depending on which group is on my radar. When I’m speaking to the first group, I might write about landing copywriting clients, setting your fees and injecting personality into your writing. But the second group, by contrast, is more interested in how to leverage the impact of social media to drive your content marketing campaign.
Same overarching intention, but a personalized and targeted approach based on the reader’s unique needs.
3. Get social
There is nothing my kids appreciate more than lively conversation around the dinner table, family game night, or a spontaneous adventure. The deeper the interaction, the more impactful. Mommy time trumps iPods, computer games, and the latest, must-have fashion accessory without fail.
And while my time is certainly limited, I seek out opportunities to engage with each child in a meaningful way.
Takeaway
You may have the most phenomenal content on your blog, but if you aren't getting social, it's a big fat waste of time!
Blogging is a big time suck, and it can be very hectic and overwhelming. But starting now, every day, make sure that you:
- take time to comment on other people's blogs
- cultivate relationships with prolific bloggers and industry experts
- leverage the benefits of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
And most importantly, be authentic in your interaction.
I know what I’m talking about here. Some of the best professional contacts that I’ve forged have been on Twitter. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s 100% true. I was invited into a Mastermind group on Twitter; I was approached by someone on Twitter to edit an ebook; and I found a genius WordPress programmer on Twitter who solved some very troubling issues on my blog and saved me a small fortune. So don’t underestimate the importance of social.
4. Don't lose sight of the bigger picture
Some days, I feel that my time is entirely consumed with meal preparation, laundry, housekeeping, carpooling—with some hysterics thrown in for good measure.
On those days, I have to remind myself that the time I invest in menial (and sometimes unpleasant) parenting tasks fuels the bigger picture payoff. Hopefully, because of my efforts, my children will emerge happy, secure, and confident with a sense that they can always rely on their Mom.
Takeaway
Blogging can be an exhausting, tedious, and slow process.
You have to do the grunt work if you're going to reap the bigger picture benefits. Write often; read even more often; solicit feedback; invest in your blog's design; learn how to optimize your site … do it all over again.
At first, it was hard for me to see the forest for the trees; my blogging experience seemed entirely mired in minutiae. So I started to keep a journal—to track my progress from month to month, noting my higher level achievements so that I could have those in mind when I felt discouraged.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try keeping a journal so that you can maintain better perspective and not lose sight of the bigger picture.
5. Keep an open mind
Sometimes, no matter how well organized I am, irrespective of how much I've considered my children's unique needs, and even with a perfectly planned schedule and a bigger picture focus, the stars misalign and my efforts are in vain.
Woody Allen once joked that if you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans. Things are bound to go awry with children, and with blogging!
Takeaway
Keep an open mind. Blogging is a journey (much like any entrepreneurial pursuit) and you learn along the way.
- Plans transform.
- Resources shrink or grow.
- Goals evolve.
You need to be flexible and adapt to changes.
I’ve encountered this reality first-hand in a dramatic way. After six months of blogging, my readership and subscriber base had skyrocketed.
I had faithfully cultivated relationships with other bloggers and using social media. I had great traction. But Danny Iny, of Firepole Marketing, recommended that I redo my site and position myself differently, to align my offline business and my online brand. It was tough advice to hear, but I very seriously considered his point of view, and after some strategic thinking, my old blog is no longer.
Poof.
But my new blog rocks even more than my old one. And making this transition required a very open mind on my part.
So I suppose I owe my blogging success to my children. And now, maybe you will too.
What do you think? Have your children helped your blogging journey? What have your relationships taught you about content marketing and social media? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Ruth Zive is a freelance copywriter and content marketing strategist. Ruth works with B2B companies, across industries, to help them leverage their content to drive business results. Learn about my corporate workshops.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
5 Epic Blogging Lessons Learned from Parenting Five Rowdy Kids
Переслать - Pinterest Basics for Bloggers
This guest post is by Yang of ChilliSauce.co.uk.
Does your world only revolve around Facebook and Twitter? Now it's time to move on: in case you haven't heard, Pinterest is the new rising star of social media!
Pinterest was developed in December 2009 as a closed beta that was released within a restricted group of individuals. After it opened registration to everyone in 2010, the Pinterest boom began. On August 16, 2011, Time magazine named Pinterest among the "50 Best Websites of 2011".
Pinterest has dominated the headlines in Mashable, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and many other websites. The world seems to be going Pintereset crazy.
The Pinterest home page
So what is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a visual social network. Every time you come across pretty or eye-catching images online, you can "pin" them to your Pinterest bulletin board, where you can share and organize them into various categories.
For example, if I see a pretty wedding dress, I will pin it to my "wedding ideas" board, which is full of images of my favorite wedding-related ideas gathered from various websites.
Pinterest boards
Image 2: Pinterest Boards
Shareaholic compiled a Referral Traffic Rrport that looks into various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Youtube, and so forth. Their findings, based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors, show that Pinterest has driven more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined!
Shareaholic Referral Traffic Report
So what are you waiting for? Let's start mapping out Pinterest strategies for your site!
How can you use Pinterest on your blog?
To get started, you need to register for your own Pinterest account.
Take some time to fill out your bio, as this is a great opportunity to introduce yourself or your business to the masses of Pinterest users. Then you are ready to start pinning!
A good place to start is by following other popular pinners and "re-pinning" their images onto your board. Browse through the categories on the network that interest you (see image below), such as "Art, Design, DIY & Craft" and so forth. When you find an image you like, you can pin it to your boards.
Pinterest has more than 30 categories
Bloggers can make use of these "clickthrough images" to attract more people to our blogs. Set up your bulletin boards and pin images from your site. Then, when other users click on an image, they're taken to your site, where that picture is located.
Take my favorite chocolate bars, for example: I saw this yummy Snickers bars under the "Food & Drink" category.
Clickable Snickers bars image
When I clicked on the image, it immediately led me to the How Sweet It Is website, where that image is hosted (see below).
The landing page of that clickable Snickers bars image
Scroll down and there's the image, pinned to my Pinterest board
6 tips to kickstart your Pinterest campaign
1. Pin with discernment
Every time you pin or re-pin a picture, it shows up on the Pinterest community boards. Here, all the pinners can see your pins, which gives you exposure to the public. So pinning quality images from your site to your boards is a must.
But don't spam the community boards with your pinned images. Remember that Pinterest is public and social; I'm sure you don't want to brand yourself as a spam artist. In the following example, I just pinned a yummy Snickers bar and my pin immediately appeared on the whole community board.
Start pinning!
Your pins show up on the Pinterest community board
2. Pin quality images
Pinterest taps into people's love of "visually sumptuous eye candy." Therefore, when you're blogging, try to attach interesting and high quality images to go with your articles.
If your pictures are not clear or look dull, then don't waste your time on Pinterest. The whole point of the network is to use images as "bait" to attract more people to your blog. If your images don't stand out in Pinterest, then people are not going to click through.
3. Track recent activity from your account
When you're logged into Pinterest, the top-left column, labeled Recent Activity, shows who has re-pinned, liked, or commented on your pins. In social media platforms, social always comes first. So do these people a favor: browse their pin boards, and re-pin or comment on their images as well!
Being social and showing them your appreciation will help you become popular on Pinterest. I still get a little buzz every time I see people re-pin my image, and I always visit their boards and show them we share the same interests.
The Recent Activity column
4. Use watermarks
Try to add watermark with your blog's URL to your original images. Then, no matter how many times your images have been pinned or re-pinned, readers can always see the image is originally from your site, which gives your blog maximum exposure.
Add a watermark to your images
5. Add catchy descriptions to your images
Try to craft catchy image descriptions that include key words or tags that are likely to be searched.
To make them more engaging, express yourself and your sense of humor here, to provoke a response from other pinners. Or simply ask a question as the description, such as "Who wouldn't love a yummy donut like this?"
6. Speed up pinning with the Pin It button
Don't forget to add a Pin It button to your bookmarks on Pinterest: go to About in the main navigation, and click Pin It Button. Then, drag the white button to your bookmarks bar.
Now, the next time you come across an awesome image, you can just click the Pin It bookmark, choose the picture that you want to add to your pin board, add an engaging and interesting description, then you're done! Easy!
Add a Pin It button
Drag the Pin It button to your Bookmarks bar
Can't wait to try it? It really is easy to get started! I look forward to your comments about your experience with Pinterest.
Yang manages the Chillisauce.co.uk website, who specialise in organising corporate events.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Переслать - The Rise of Visual Storytelling In Marketing
This guest post is by Magdalena Georgieva of Hubspot.
The September 2011 introduction of Facebook's Timeline proved prophetic. "It's a lot more visual," wrote Sam Lessin, a product manager at Facebook, about the new look of the social network.
Visual, as it turns out, is also the direction in which the world of online marketing has headed.
The rise of visual storytelling as a means of spreading a marketing message couldn't possibly have evaded you. A number of image-based platforms out there, including Pinterest, Instagram, and SlideShare, have already made a strong statement about how visual content can impact business results.
Images, presentations, and infographics are getting shared with ease, attracting thousands of views and sending tons of traffic to their original sources. Then, marketers assume the responsibility of qualifying the new visits and converting them into leads.
What's so irresistible about images?
Images on the web can take control of your time in an instant and lead you down a path that you didn't intend on taking.
You must have experienced the irresistible urge of flipping through photos during your lunch break and letting them distract you for a minute or two. One moment, you find yourself laughing over the images and the next moment, you are sharing them with friends.
Not surprisingly, six out of the ten most popular pieces of content that HubSpot has shared on our Facebook page in the last 30 days are images. Their cumulative reach was in the range of 7,000-12,000 views.
Let's take a look at the platforms that brought about this rise of visual storytelling in marketing.
Pinterest
Since December 2012, news of Pinterest, the popular image-based sharing platform, has dominated the technology and marketing blogs. The website has now exceeded 11 million unique visitors and is quickly becoming a big referral source for many organizations.
In our new ebook, How to Use Pinterest for Business we reveal that the network has been sending more traffic to HubSpot's blog than Google+ has. We'll be keeping a close eye on how much of that traffic is actually qualified and converts into new leads.
Editor's note: Later today, ProBlogger will show beginners how to get a head-started Pinterest. So if you’re not already hooked, look out for that post!
Instagram
The photo sharing application Instagram has accumulated 15 million users and is quickly outgrowing Foursquare. The iPhone app is a great way to successfully tap into the mobile and social marketing trend and enable users to experience your brand in a different way.
"Think about the artsy ways you could showcase your work, your staff or your customers with this tool," writes John Jantsch.
Starbucks, Red Bull, General Electric, and Marc Jacobs are among some of the brands that are using Instagram for great marketing.
Slideshare
Slideshare is a platform that enables businesses and individuals to upload their presentations online and share them for free. It's a great tool for B2B companies, for which presentations have remained a powerful form of social media.
In 2011, HubSpot's presentations hosted on SlideShare accumulated more than three million views and thousands of downloads and social media shares.
Just like with Pinterest and Instagram, SlideShare can yield positive results for your organization if the presentations you are sharing convey clear value in a well-designed form. "Take an extra hour or hire a designer to make sure that important presentations are visually powerful," advises HubSpot's Kipp Bodnar.
Naturally, there are many other image-based platforms out there that can be used in combination with your other marketing activities. For instance, you can upload pictures to Flickr and share them on Facebook or Twitter. ISSUU is another website that hosts visual content, such as magazines, ebooks, and other documents.
What should you do about the rise of visual content in marketing?
- Get on board: Join a visual storytelling platform and start posting some of your existing image-heavy content. Make sure the pictures you upload convey value and are consistent with your brand identity. Don't forget to optimize the description of your posts and include links back to your website.
- Include calls to action: Make sure that your visual content includes calls to action that take viewers to a landing page on your website related to the specific visual content. This will be your way of qualifying prospects and getting them to convert into leads. For instance, you can include calls-to-action at the bottom of infographics, in the descriptions of images, or on the last slide of presentations as a natural next step for readers who want to further engage with your brand.
- Measure impact: At the end of the day, what's going to matter most is the levels of traffic, leads, and customers you generate via a specific platform. Use marketing software that tracks how your traffic is changing, and has the capability to compare different sources and provide you with reliable reporting. With access to such insights, you can revisit your strategy and prioritize the efforts that deliver the best results.
Have you started using visual content to market your business? What is your number one tip for newbies?
This is a guest post by Magdalena Georgieva, an inbound marketing manager at HubSpot. HubSpot is a marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA that makes inbound marketing and lead management software.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
The Rise of Visual Storytelling In Marketing
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