Simply Zesty » Blogging – Simply Zesty

5 Brilliantly Creative Uses Of Tumblr

Niall Harbison — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:22:25 +0000

Tumblr is really taking off as a fun platform that allows users to easily share there content online. It sits somewhere between Twitter and Blogging and it is getting billions of page views as people come up with lots of creative ways to use it and with an account only taking a couple of minutes to set up the barriers to entry are extremely low. The fact that you can upload content to Tumblr in seconds from your phone via a simple app and that you can allow users to submit their own content (which you can moderate) means that there are some great creative ways in which you can use Tumblr. They really seem to have tapped in to a great market and all sorts of people who are not technically minded are creating great content. Here are 5 of the best examples that we love…

Dear Photograph

The idea behind this Tumblr is simple but brilliant. You take an old photo that you have and you hold it up in the exact location that the photo was taken in the past and share it with the world. It is a fantastic blend of old and new technology and you could spend hours scrolling through all the pictures that they feature here.

Clients From Hell

For anybody who works in the agency world or indeed any service industry this Tumblr will give you a laugh on a daily basis. The idea is that people send in stories, pictures, videos and other examples of their “Clients From Hell”. You will get at least one laugh out loud moment every day on this Tumblr and plenty of times you will end up thinking “yeah I have experienced that before”

Scanwiches

The idea behind this Tumblr is very simple in that it scans sandwiches from around the world and shares them on a daily basis. It makes even the most simple ingredients slapped between 2 pieces of bread look nice. This Tumblr was so popular and unique that it even got it’s own book.

Eat Sleep Draw

This is a community site for people who like to draw. The idea is simple…you draw something nice, submit it to the Tumblr and the editors choose what gets published. Most people link back to their own sites so it’s a great way to get some attention for your work and to browse some pretty inspiring drawings as an end user.

kim jong-il looking at things

The leader of North Korea is not especially well known for his sense of humor but the creators of this Tumblr will put a smile on your face with their daily updates. The Tumblr does exactly what it says in the title and you would be surprised by just how many different things he looks at and just how funny such a simple idea actually is for you as a reader.

Are Big Tech Blogs Just Turning In To Content Farms?

Niall Harbison — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:19:40 +0000

I started reading Mashable back in 2007 when it was a tiny little blog with great content about an emerging sector. I’ve watched it grow over time in to a giant that gets something like 50 million page views a month and turn in to a fully fledged business but they have lost all my respect over the last couple of years getting to a point today where I don’t read the site any more and have to call it out for purely being a content farm. There is still some decent content on there at times but the level at which they are chasing traffic and SEO rankings of late is stooping to an all time low which culminated in them clearly targeting traffic around the biggest news events this weekend (I don’t want to mention the name but you know what i am talking about and can see screen shots below). Tons of social media and technology blogs are doing this of late but the fact that social media is influencing a news story is no longer a story in itself. The fact that people are tweeting or sharing video is no longer news worthy and it’s time to look at why these blogs are doing this…

How Low Can You Go?

There have been some horrible events over the last couple of days that have captured the world’s imagination and got people talking online. These sorts of events happen on a weekly basis (last week it was the NOTW scandal) and every single time the big blogs all just put a social media spin on to it to capture traffic.

2 Of the main stories on the homepage relate to the incident

Not only are these stories easy for people to click the social sharing buttons on because of their nature but more importantly it is how they rank in search results that matters and the traffic that is bringing in. The first search term I thought of was “social media Norway” and you can see that the results below bring up 2 results for the Mashable posts. There are 100s of other similar search terms being targeted and it means more traffic which means more people clicking on ads and more money.

The big blogs are just after the search results

I actually have been thinking about writing this post for some time and it was a tweet that I saw this morning that reminded me about it and it was interesting to see other people thinking the same thing. To be honest it doesn’t matter what people like me or other people giving out online think because these sites have so much traction and SEO juice already that anything they publish goes straight to the top of the rankings. With things like +1 buttons and social sharing starting to influence search results more by the day this trend of writing stories in this manner will only accelerate.

Not Physically Possible To Keep Up

I use an RSS reader to find stories for the blog here and to keep up with news tech and social media news. It works great because I’m very busy and this delivers all the news to me meaning I don’t miss anything. I stupidly made a folder with just 2 of the big tech blogs in it and as you can see there are currently over 1000 posts in there to read. This happens any time I am too busy and don’t have time to open Google reader for a couple of days. The big blogs are producing over 50 posts a day in a race to get more and more traffic. Many are just optimized for SEO and all about getting traffic. Some might argue that it is just because these are big media sites like newspapers now but I disagree because there is only so much good quality content you can write on any one niche subject. I’d much rather see 10 amazing posts per day than 50 low quality traffic chasing posts but then that wouldn’t be as good for SEO and revenues.

What Is The Solution

I’m not laying the blame all at Mashable’s door because there are plenty of others doing this and I completely understand that they are a commercial business. They are in my sector however and it’s just a shame to see a business abandon all sense of sticking to what got them to the top in the first place just to chase easy money. Luckily there are some other blogs that keep their focus (I suggest Gigaom and Read Write Web and The Next Web) and don’t completely sell out. You do have a choice online but when you see people chasing traffic using social media as the angle on things like the horrible news events of this past weekend it really does leave a bad taste in your mouth. Google was quick to clamp down on content farms with their latest panda update but are there certain blogs out there that are now effectively content farms as well?

How To Get 1000 Blog Subscribers Within 3 Months

Niall Harbison — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:34:57 +0000

We recently launched Simply Viral as a little side project to share one amazing piece of content every single day of the week. Even though it only features a video per day and a couple of lines of text it is essentially a blog and I wanted to share some of the secrets in how we have been able to grow it relatively quickly. Blog readers come and go and most people that find your site from sources like Google, links from other sites or via social networking sites will visit your site for one specific piece of content and never come back. That makes Subscribers (RSS, Email, Twitter, Facebook likes etc) absolutely crucial in growing a blog. Here are some of the simple tips we followed to grow to 1000 subscribers in 3 months and give us a good platform to build something meaningful going forward…

Find Your Hooks

Getting people to come back to your blog is all about getting them hooked in one way or another. That might be via email or Twitter or RSS or even via a Facebook page. It’s all about creating a captive audience who like your content and start seeing it a few times and then become regular readers. As you can see we have placed a simple graphic which features 4 different ways of capturing people on the page. As people watch the video there is a very good chance they will click in to one of the options and suddenly move from being a passive viewer to a long term subscriber.

Old School Emailing

We wanted to create a mini version of the Groupon model where instead of selling something we would provide one piece of stunning content. Email is at the center of that strategy. Give users a strong incentive to sign up to receive your content by email (make sure to make it easy to unsubscribe) and they will become loyal readers. We use a small pop up graphic that only appears the first time you visit the site. There is an argument that is could be slightly annoying but as a once off it is massively effective in capturing new email subscribers.

Shareable Content

In this day and age with the emergence of social networks the key is to produce content that people want to share. In our own case it is video that is curated for the users but it could be amazing text, resourceful guides or breaking news. The key is making the content so good that people want to share it and when they do share it have the sharing buttons wrapped around the post so as it is only one click for users and they push it on to their own networks.

Make sure to make your content very shareable

Google Ads

Most people probably don’t think about advertising their blog but getting the first few readers are always the hardest and there is no point you producing all the amazing content if nobody is ever going to see it. If your blog is for business and you want to raise it’s profile it might be an idea to throw even 10 Euros a day at targeting specific keywords that you are after. You market your website so why not throw a very reasonable 200-300 Euros a month on capturing some early readers?

Leverage Existing Sites

We are very lucky in that we have a main site here that gets over 300,000 visitors a month that we can use to link over to Simply Viral and we’ve made sure to flag this new project with links and banners. You should use all assets you have including your own website, personal profiles and any other way you have to pointing towards the new blog. It sounds very obvious but you would be surprised how many people make their blog invisible by not linking to it in any way.

Growth Accelerates Organically

The good news is that once you get the first 300-500 subscribers things really start flying from there. You’ll find that the second 500 come in about half the time. This is because you have people reading your content on a daily basis and sharing it with their networks. So put the hard slog in at the start and as long as your content is good enough the growth from then on will get easier and become somewhat of a formality.

The Obsession With Tumblr – Charting Spectacular Growth

Niall Harbison — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:58:26 +0000

Blogging has been around for over a decade and Twitter for half that amount of time and the two platforms have lived happily side by side for the last few years but a new upstart is coming along quietly to wedge itself firmly in the middle and offer something new…Tumblr. It’s on a spectacular growth curve and the site is appealing to an entirely new audience who want something more casual than full on blogging but a little more meaningful that short tweets. Where Tumblr has had most of it’s success is wedging itself on to smart phones as an entirely new way of sharing rich media content when you are on the go. If anything it looks like Tumblr is at the very start of it’s growth and they look well positioned to benefit from all the trends that are coming together now including the shift to blogging, mobile and content sharing. Here are some of the reasons why Tumblr is growing as fast as it is today and set to become one of the big runaway success stories of the year…

It’s Blogging For The Man In The Street

Any time I am training newbies on social media now I bring them to Tumblr instead of full on blogging and without exception people of all ages can learn and understand the platform within an hour. For all the advances in blogging platforms there has always been that little bit of fear when people are confronted with things like HTML and embedding video code but Tumblr does away with all those things. The biggest benefit of Tumblr is that is is more or less idiot proof and it allows people with limited technological ability to be up and running in minutes. I can see from the sheer stunned look on people’s faces when I show them that they literally can’t believe they created their own blog post within 5 minutes.

Unreal Growth

Tumblr has actually been around for a few years now but it is really in the last 8-10 months that it has really started to hockey stick in terms of growth. Across all the various sites hosted on Tumblr there are now a huge 2.5 billion page views per month and you can see from the graph below just how that growth is speeding up.

Utterly Mobile

What makes Tumblr really stand out as something different is it’s incredibly simple to use mobile app that makes blogging just about as easy as it has ever been. The app has a super clean UI and taking pictures or capturing small pieces of text while on the go has never been easier. This is where Tumblr has really found it’s niche because although you might tweet on the go there is very little chance that you will write a full blog post (WordPress do have an app though) but as people seek to share more rich media content from their mobile Tumblr has stepped in to fill that gap. As we all start to embrace mobile more than ever and spend more time away from laptops and desktops Tumblr will grow even further especially when you consider that smartphones are not ubiquitous yet.If you have not used Tumblr on the phone yet you will be stunned at just how easy it is to use and if anything it brings even more simplicity to the act of blogging than the website itself.

More Substance Than Twitter

Twitter is brilliant as a communication tool but the big problem is that as soon as you share something it is as good as gone and lost in the big black hole of old Twitter content. You can share photos, videos and text on Twitter but with Tumblr it actually has it’s own home and a place where yourself and others can go back and reference it at a later date.

How Blogging Is Turning In To Big Business

Niall Harbison — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:28:48 +0000

When you say the word blogging to non technical people the word itself tends to have a bit of a stigma attached to it. People think of techie people sitting in their basements hunched over a computer writing about obscure topics. That image couldn’t be further from the truth as blogs are turning in to big business and changing in front of our eyes in to what are effectively small media empires. While there is no doubt that personal blogging has been hit hard by the rise of social media and sites like Twitter and Facebook it’s the professional blogs that have started thriving and a lot of that has to do with the rise of social media and the fractures appearing within traditional media. Starting a blog has never been easier and distribution (getting traffic to the blog) has been accelerated with the rise of social sharing tools like Facebook and Twitter. Add in teams of professional writers being paid by proper financial backing and you have the recipe for a thriving sector and a whole new era of blogging…

Starting A Media Empire From Your Bedroom

In the old days (10+ years ago) you would need some serious backing to start a publication of any significant size. You needed to either physically print your own or you could have invested in a professional website which still cost a lot of money in those days. Now anybody can have their own professional looking blog live within less than an hour. The technology has decreased the barriers to entry and Mashable has to be the best example of that going from a small bedroom in a remote Scottish town to a media powerhouse in less than 5 years with many claiming it could sell soon for $50+ million. Most blogs start with a strong individual personality behind them but they soon evolve as the revenue starts pouring in and they hire teams of professional writers to expand their content offering. The writing and content is key in the early days but the barriers to entry and costs are minimal.

$5 Million + From A Conference

It’s hard for a blog to make serious money on page views alone. Ads do help with revenue but the Internet is a very competitive space and the valuation of these blogs would be far lower if they relied on ads alone. What blogs can do is leverage the massive online appeal that they have and bring their brand in to the real world using conferences. Just this week Techcrunch Disrupt was held in New York where 2200 attendees paid between $2/3000 per ticket. When you add in sponsorships and other deals you are looking at one conference generating between $5 and $10 million in revenue. It’s the huge brand appeal and loyal readership that blogs have that is attracting companies to buy them and when you think there could be multiple conferences per year that is a serious business you are talking about.

Sample ticket prices for the Techcrunch Disrupt conference

Blogs Raising Venture Capital

I never thought I’d see the day where venture capital was being invested in to blogs but that is exactly what we saw this week with $6 million getting pumped in to one of my favorite blogs Gigaom in a second round of funding. If people are investing that amount of money it’s because they are betting that they will get more out on the other end after any potential sale so investors are piling in to the space. In terms of an investment it’s really just an investment in people because there is no proprietary technology that any of these blogs have and anybody could set up the software that they have for free.

Blogs Selling For Huge Money

Two of the biggest examples of late have been Techcrunch and The Huffington Post which have sold for $40 and $340 million respectively to AOL. It’s part of a larger strategy by AOL to move in to content and they haven’t ruled out more purchases as they seek to tap in to the huge potential of blogs. Even Inside Networks was bought for $14 recently which were a series of blogs that focused on Facebook and social networking and that price looks impressive when you consider they had taken no investment and reported on the more niche subject of social networking. You can expect this trend of blogs getting snapped up to continue as old media wakes up to the potential of these sites and acquires more of them across all the different verticles.

Are These Actually Blogs?

I have to say that my own feeling on the matter is that none of the above are actually blogs any longer. They may technically be blogs but with groups of professional writers dotted all over the world and professional sales teams and designers these are in fact small media empires. Blogging software has leveled the playing field which means that anybody with an Internet connection and a WordPress account can create a significant blog. Social tools are helping these blogs get an audience quicker than they ever could have before and traditional media are facing serious competition across every sector from the bottom up. I personally think it’s great that anybody can create their own media empire and think more people should be jumping in to the space.

8 Tips To Help Your Get Email Noticed And Secure Online Coverage

Niall Harbison — Wed, 18 May 2011 07:53:05 +0000

I get a couple of hundred emails a day which is a lot of information to digest. Some are from clients, I get all the hello@ emails for the business and this blog and internal emails from people within Simply Zesty. Most of the stuff I can filter in an efficient way but about a quarter of the email I get needs my attention and for me to make a decision on if I should reply or take it further. That actually takes a lot longer than you would think and as the email burden starts to get larger I wanted to share some of the ways that I filter out emails. As many of the emails are from people looking to get coverage on the blog I thought I’d flip it on it’s head and write this post about how to get noticed by email and how to secure coverage online. Remember that my inbox is tiny when compared to some of the bigger blogs or people whose attention you are trying to get online via email. Use these tips and you have a much better chance of having your email replied to…

Don’t Make Your Email Look Like This

Below is an actual email that I received yesterday and which prompted me to write this post. I get these all the time and it’s useful to use as an example of everything that you shouldn’t do. First mistake is that the email has been sent to about 50 other blogs and I have been cc’d along with the rest of them so I know that this is nothing unique to be even if it was an interesting story. You also don’t need to make stuff bold to get my attention or repeat yourself or demand that I join twice.

Build A Relationship Or Get Referred

If there is any way in which you can build a relationship before sending the email then that is a must. Maybe you can start following the person on Twitter and engaging in conversation. Once you have struck up a relationship it might just be a simple case of sending them a little DM saying I just emailed you something interesting that I’d love you to take a look at. This approach takes a little longer but it does work as for some reason the DM is harder to ignore. People rarely send me stuff by DM on Twitter but when they do I tend to at the very least read it and look in to it a little further. The other way is to be referred. So if somebody comes to me saying Mr X said this would be of interest to you and I know Mr X then I’ll nearly always read the email. It taps in to the feeling of not wanting to let a friend down and personal recommendations nearly always work.

Keep It Extremely Short

If you can’t explain what you do in a couple of lines then it really isn’t going to hold most people’s attention. Think of your email like Twitter and feel under pressure with the amount of characters you have. If I see that an email runs to 4 or 5 paragraphs I’ll very rarely get past the first line or sometimes won’t even start reading it. Get everything you want to across in 2 lines and by all means tag a press release on at the bottom of the email under the signature with full details for me to pursue if I need them.

Nobody Will Open Attachments

If you are lucky enough to have somebody read your email that is great but there is even less chance that they will open an attachment. Link to everything you need to share on the web, paste a press release in to the bottom of the email and only attach photos or logos but if you can just link to them somewhere that is even better. Attachments take time to download, are cumbersome and most people will just ignore them.

Include All The Information You Need To

Journalists, bloggers and people going to cover your story are on the whole pretty lazy. You should provide them with all the information they could possibly need to cover your story within the email. This could include things like a link to the site, a free sign up code, logos or screen grabs, press release, videos, quotes and any additional information that they need for the story. The last thing somebody who is busy wants is an email exchange going back and forward looking for the right logo or logins to test the site. By giving them everything in one email you make sure there is the best possible chance of securing some coverage

I Don’t Believe That You Read My Blog

If you start the email like the one below it really doesn’t do anything for me and I get so many of these every single day that if that many people were reading the blog it would be a lot bigger than it was. Listen I know you probably don’t read the blog and I am fine with that but quoting some post I wrote 3 months ago as a starting point really doesn’t mean anything to me. I know some people will have read the blog but for the most part it is a lie and starting an email with a lie is never the best bet.

Describe Everything In The Subject Line

The subject line is there for a reason. It’s your best chance of getting attention just like the title of a blog post or the headline in a newspaper is. Don’t use something generic or cryptic that tries to lure me in to the email because that will more than likely get ignored. Make it clear and to the point and tell me exactly what you are after. Honesty is the best policy here rather than trying to hide what you have behind a veil of secrecy. Remember you are up against 100s of other emails so make sure your doesn’t get deleted immediately without the person even opening it.

Don’t Use Ridiculous Language

I know you love your start up or your product and that you think it is better than everything else out there. Nearly every single email you get pitching for coverage contains one of the following words though….unique, game changing, incredible, revolutionize, viral, exclusive are words that we hear every single day and they don’t make the slightest bit of difference. People hear them every single day and the chances are that although what you are pitching is good it won’t actually be any of the above. Just stick to plain language.

How To Create A Truly Remarkable Blog For Your Business

Niall Harbison — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 12:19:13 +0000

I always get a lot of questions about business blogging and how people can improve their own blogs or just get started. There are 100s of posts out there including a few of our own but I wanted to look at things from a slightly higher level today and see what you can do to create a really remarkable blog. None of these tips are going to pay off overnight and none will turn your blog in to a massive hit without hard work but they do work and they are important if you are really serious about this. Rather than thinking everything on this list is going to deliver results by the end of the month look at the items on here and try and implement them over the course of a full year because that is when you will really see the value…

Write Your Posts On A Train Or Plane

You obviously can’t jump on a plane or train every time you need to write a blog post but all the great posts I write are when I am offline and only have a text editor in front of me. When I am online writing a blog post I’ll be distracted every couple of minutes and pop in and out of email, Twitter and Facebook which means that even though my blog post is taking hours to write the quality and concentration are just not there. Try switching the online world off and just concentrating on nothing but your blog post. You’ll be stunned by the results you achieve.

Don’t Try And Break News

It’s often tempting to try and compete with sites out there who break news within your niche but it doesn’t work. We can’t compete with the likes of The Next Web, Mashable or Techcrunch because they have teams of professionally paid writers whose main job is to break news. They spend their time on RSS, Twitter and chasing stories so as they can be the first to break news. Where you can compete is by adding insight to the latest news and delving behind the story. So rather than telling people that Facebook have launched new comments we will give you the analysis and show what it means for your own business.

Sell Your Blog Like A Book

I picked up 2 books in the airport this morning. I only had 2 minutes to make the purchase so I ended up going for the books that stood out to me from a design perspective and told me exactly what they were about on the cover. You need to think of your blog in exactly the same way and package it up like a book. The chances are people will only flick on to your blog for a couple of seconds before deciding if they are going to read it. Much like I didn’t have time to read blurbs or the first page of the book your potential readers probably won’t read your “about” section or any of your posts. They’ll scan over your blog and see if they like the design, the layout and the title of your post. If you have all of those things right they’ll read on, if you don’t they’ll move on.

Read Everything You Can Find

When I am not working or writing on the blog I am reading. When I wake up in the morning I read blog posts. When I am in a queue I read blogs. Waiting on a bus I’ll be reading and before going to bed at night I’ll be reading the work of others. Your own blog is never going to be good unless you absorb the work of others and know your industry inside out. Not only will you become more knowledgable but you’ll also get some great inspiration for your own blog posts and think of angles you never would otherwise. The big popular blogs are not always the best place to start because plenty of people are writing amazing content out there that you have never heard of before but isn’t getting found so look for the niche stuff. Make it your job to find the best content and read it as much as you possibly can.

Network Your Ass Off

Most of you know how to do this already. It’s a lot of hard work and the benefits are not always apparent but networking is the way to make your blog truly remarkable and build an audience. Use tools like Twitter and Facebook. Leave comments on other blogs. Speak at events. Attend events within your niche. Email people within your niche. Strike up relationships and generally increase the size of your network. None of this is going to bring people to your blog overnight but showing that you know your stuff on other sites and creating a network of people who trust your word on a subject within your niche is one of the most important things you can do as a blog owner.

Don’t Let Critisism Influence Your Writing

95% of people who read your blog will love it and thank you for the great content you are producing and the ideas you are sharing. No matter how helpful or accurate your blog is though 5% will always have something bad to say. It’s human nature and it will never change. Some people find it very hard to take because they find it personal, an attack on the work they have put hours of their life in to. You shouldn’t think like that. It’s right that people should disagree with your way of thinking and challenge you. The most important thing to do is to not let those 5% shape what you would write in the future and to keep writing what YOU think.

Lay Your Blog Out Like A Newspaper

When I pick up a copy of The Sunday Time I know exactly where everything is. The sections are always the same and the way the articles and photos are spread out on the pages rarely changes. Newspapers are very good at presenting the content to you in the way you would expect it to be delivered. Once you have settled on your final blog design you need to keep all your posts as uniform as possible. Have a look over some of our posts and you’ll pretty much see an image in same place and the posts broken in to sections with a title for each section. We never move away from that format because people are used to it and it allows them to scan articles like this for the bits that they need. Layout might seem like a small enough thing but think of all the big blogs you read and think about how standardized their layout is.

Write Stuff That You Shouldn’t Write

There are times when I’m writing a post and I think to myself “I shouldn’t really be saying that” and think about deleting it. More often than not though I’ll leave it in because a blog is about opinions and there is no point holding back. Sure you might get some bad feedback or people disagreeing with you in the comments but I’d always publish 90% of the things you think you shouldn’t. At the end of the day there are 100s of people out there writing about the same stuff and playing it safe so having your own opinions is one way of standing out from the crowd.

Set Targets

We have targets for this blog every month. Numbers of RSS subscribers, number of posts, number of unique visits, email subscribers and so on. They are in a nice little spreadsheet and they get updated once a quarter. I know you probably think that because we are a business we need to do that but I have always done the same on personal blogs as it’s a great way of looking at the bigger picture. I know some people have personal blogs and couldn’t care less about traffic or hitting targets but if you want to grow your blog get in to the habit of setting yourself targets. Where do you want to be by the summer? Could you double the size of your blog by this time next year? Think long term rather than short term.

Learn Google Analytics Properly

You probably have a good basic understanding of your stats and look at them every day to see how your traffic is growing but that is only scratching the surface. I would suggest spending half a day learning Google Analytics properly using their conversion University (totally free). You’ll start to pick up trends and spot content on your blog which is working well against content that just doesn’t get much of a reaction.

Get A Marketing Strategy

Your blog as it is at the moment is barely not going to be found. You are competing against millions of other blogs, news sites, content farms, Twitter and every other site on the web also screaming out for attention. You could be creating the most amazing content in the world but without a marketing strategy it’s never going to be found. I’ve written plenty of posts here in the past about driving traffic to your blog that you can use as a reference. Don’t just make it up as you go along but instead sit down and put a bit of thought in to your marketing plan and even get it down on paper.

Some Popular Business Blogging Misconceptions

Niall Harbison — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:12:59 +0000

If I had my way every company would have a business blog. I spend large amounts of my time working with brands and businesses that have certain stereotypes about blogging and trying to convince them to establish their own blog. It’s a scary step to take because even though blogging has moved in to the mainstream in recent years it’s surprising how little people know about the mechanics of blogging. It is now a common term in most board rooms and with marketing teams but there is still a huge amount of ignorance out there as to the benefits of blogging for business and the mechanics of how it works. I hear the same questions over and over again so here are some of the most popular misconceptions around business blogging…

Isn’t it just other bloggers who read blogs?

There is no doubt that other bloggers read blogs because that is what they are passionate about and it’s a very tightly knit community but a huge amount of people read blogs who have never written a word online in their lives. Blogs rank especially well in search engines because Google likes fresh content so people often find blogs first when they search for products or reviews. More commercial blogs are attracting larger amounts of traffic so no it is not just other bloggers who read blogs, far from it actually.

It’s somewhere for your press releases

If I do convince people to start blogging the first thing they usually say is what a great place it will be to share their press releases and all their latest award wins. In other words another traditional channel used to broadcast out messages that they expect people will be interested in. 99.9% of people couldn’t care about press releases in their current format so putting them on your blog is not going to change anything. People read blogs because there is something in it for them and not as a marketing channel. So once you do take the step to create a blog don’t just treat it as another marketing channel.

My brand will come under attack

It depends. If you do silly things and treat your customers with disrespect then yes of course it will just as it would in any other platform. Just because you start a blog doesn’t mean that some online mob is going to pop up and start attacking. People are already online talking about your brand in places like Twitter, Facebook and on other blogs. By having your own platform and engaging with people via a blog you have a place to give your side of the story. All comments on blogs are moderated anyway so even in the highly unlikely event that people do start attacking you don’t have to publish unmoderated comments.

Image credit

It will take lots of resources

Depends what sort of blog you write. If you want to write a blog like ours here where we publish at least two posts per day then yes it will take lots of resources. It is possible to have a very engaging company blog that takes 1 hour to write a week. Blogging has never been easier and there are even sites like Tumblr and Posterous that let you create content in a matter of seconds. I’ve written in the past how you can create content in less than 5 minutes so there really is no excuse. Having a good business blog does not take lots of resources.

Nobody will be interested in what I have to say

Not true. Find your niche and write about it and no matter how narrow that niche is you will find an audience. You’ll have to work at making your content interesting and to stand out form the crowd. Tap in to the passion that people have within your niche and more importantly show your own passion and people will come flocking to your blog.

I’ll make lots of money from my blog

So many people set up a blog with the intention of making money directly from ads or trying to monetize their blog from day 1. This pretty much never works. You might make money from your blog in terms of business leads or by positioning yourself as the expert in your niche but there are huge blogs out there already who have far more traffic than you ever will who are not making any money from blogging.

It’s Too Technical For Me

People always think blogging is some sort of complicated technical challenge that should only be attempted by developers. The software has moved on to a level where if you use something like WordPress (like this blog is built on) it could not be easier to use and you need very limited technical knowledge. I always say that it’s as easy as logging in to your email and creating a word document. You will probably need a developer to set it up on your own domain name at the start and host your blog etc but once that is done any old technophobe could be blogging away with little technical knowledge.

7 Simple Ways To Create Amazing Blog Posts In Less Than 5 Minutes

Niall Harbison — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:32:33 +0000

We’ve discussed the merits of blogging here on numerous occasions but no matter how often we do the one thing that I always hear from people is that they just don’t have the time to blog. People are busy running their business or taking care of their daily lives and blogging is something that fits in way down the list of priorities. It doesn’t have to be like that. Up until a couple of years ago blogging used to involve some coding and design knowledge and it would take some serious time but these days the tools are out there to help you get great content online in minutes. The following list are some services and tools that mean you can create great compelling content in less than 5 minutes and have a web presence that people will find interesting and keep on coming back to. There really is no excuse for you not to start blogging now with this list of 7 great tools for blogging in less than 5 minutes…

Tumblr

Possibly the easiest tool to use on the whole list and used correctly you’ll actually be able to get blog posts up in less than 30 seconds (photos, videos and links). It is essentially somewhere between Twitter and fully fledged blogging. You can really add any sort of media including audio and video but one of the best uses is to install their app on your phone and you can be publishing within seconds of finding great content. Works especially well for people who are not great writers and would rather just use rich media content. If you can’t get your head around this for blogging and get some content online then you really don’t have much hope because it really is that easy! When setting up you get a choice of some simple themes and colors can be changes easily to personalize the look and feel of your blog.

Audioboo.Com

Podcasting used to be reserved to the geekier among us who had the nous to set up complicated hosting and iTunes accounts but luckily in stepped Audioboo. This is a great tool that lets you capture audio within a couple of clicks through either the website or their apps and the real beauty as that they host the file and allow you to embed it in to your blog or website in a couple of seconds. Again a perfect tool for people who don’t feel comfortable writing and you don’t need any editing or fancy equipment to set up your own podcast and embed it in to your blog.

Youtube Instant Video

People think that to start your own video blog you need tons of fancy equipment and the ability to be able to edit your footage. The truth is that with the Youtube webcam you can have your own video show up and running in less than 2 minutes. All you need to do is hit the record button, look in to your webcam and capture the content that you want to feature on your new video blog. Once the video has processed it is a case of embedding it in to your blog or Tumblr which is a 10 second process and repeating that over and over again. Having your own video blog (or vlog) has never been this easy.

WordPress Post By Voice

Picture the scene as you walk out of a pub after a long night of drinking when a thought pops in to your head for a new blog post. No longer will you have to risk losing that thought forever because now all you have to do is pick up the phone and call in the blog post. The instructions are all on that blog post but essentially once you call the number it creates a voice file which uploads to your blog automatically and can even be customized with RSS feeds etc.

WordPress Apps

You are not going to be able to write your life story from WordPress mobile apps but they do allow you to post blog posts on the go. Perfect for creating short posts and the fact that you can post photos direct from your phone means that it is perfect for posing short blog posts when you are on holidays or traveling. The app is simple to use and even available on the larger iPad.

Posterous

Of all the different tools on the list this one is probably the easiest of the lot. You get great content (text, photo, audio, video etc) and send it to the guys in Posterous (by web, email or mobile) and they will publish it to a lovely clean webpage and then share it automatically based on your preferences. This really is blogging stripped down to the basics and allows you to focus on nothing but the content.

Ping.Fm

Once you have your lovely blog content you will have to move on to promoting it. The big problem with that is that it takes time and by the time you get around the various social networks and profiles that you want to share your link on you’ve wasted another 15 minutes. Luckily with Ping.fm set up correctly you’ll be able to push your blog content out to all the different places it needs to be at the click of a finger. You can even get smarter than that and use RSS to make ping.fm publish your content to all your social networks automatically,

21 Steps Towards Creating An Effective Business Blog

Niall Harbison — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:50:42 +0000

I don’t normally do requests here on the blog but something that 3 different people have asked me in the last couple of weeks to write about is the success of our blog and how people can build their own corporate or business blog. There is nothing earth shattering on this post and it will take a lot of time and effort to implement the following tips in to your own business blog. I cringe when I see the amount of business and corporate blogs out there that have been abandoned and not updated in months because it really is a bad reflection on your business. Not everybody has the time as a business to blog in the way that we do but as long as you are consistent, set realistic expectations and have some clearly defined business goals you can easily create an effective business blog…

This Blog Within 18 Months

We set this blog up less than 18 months ago. Without it our business wouldn’t be what it is today. It takes us a massive amount of time on top of our regular working day to write and promote it. Myself and Lauren spend well over 15 hours per week improving the blog in various ways and if anything we would love to spend more. It’s offered us a platform not just here in Ireland but all around the world to speak about our company. We use the blog for everything from recruitment of new staff to generating new business and engaging with potential customers. This little graphic shows off some of the places we have been covered and a rough estimation on the amount of business we have brought in to the company as a result of the blog…

1.Have A Clear Business Goal

There is no point writing a blog just for the sake of writing it, you need to have a clear business goal for doing so. Our business goal is simple…we want to raise our profile as an agency internationally while bringing in business leads. Everything we do from design to the content we write is all tied back in to those two goals. Set your own clear goals and stick to them no matter how many other distractions might pop up form day to day.

2.Write Content That People Will Reference

People are very selfish in their reasons for visiting blogs. They will only come to your blog if there is something there for them. Good content, something they can learn from, the latest news or content that they can’t find elsewhere. What you need to try and do is create content that people will reference and pass on to others.

3.Give Away Lots Of “Secrets” For Free

The best thing you can do on a blog is give away as much information as you possibly can. If you are writing a business blog there is a good chance that people are reading it or have arrived there via a search engine looking for information. Don’t be scared to give away some of your trade secrets or some advice that you would normally charge for. It might not seem natural to be giving your experience away free online but I’ve found that the more you give away for free the more business you will actually get in return. Strange but true.

4.Show Your Personality

The old saying in social media is that nobody wants to be friends with a logo and the same has to be said of blogs…nobody really wants to read what a logo has to say. Adding personality and showing the human side of your company online is not always easy and most companies are terrified of letting their staff have a voice but people love to hear what other people have to say and having a human touch and some nice personal photos on your blog goes a long way.

5.You Don’t Have To Do What People Expect

We are an agency. By right we shouldn’t be giving away free advice. We shouldn’t be helping people with an Ebook. We shouldn’t be posting about controversial content or having a polarizing opinion online. As an agency you are meant to tow the line and post non controversial content a couple of times a week. The point here is that if you try and be like every other blog and outdo the current market leaders by copying them you will never get anywhere. Don’t be scared of standing out from the crowd and creating something that nobody else would have expected.

6.Weave Social Media In To Your Blog

Pretty obvious one really these days but social media can help in adding a human side to your blog as well as building community around your business. I would always say to pick 3 social platforms that are relevant to you rather than trying to do them all and spread yourself too thin. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube perhaps? Think of the various social media profiles as the different touch points for your blog and the different paths that people can find you from. Make sure your content is shareable and that you are not always pushing the content out to the same group of people who are subscribed to you via multiple channels.

7.Get Some Basic SEO Work Before You Start

All the talk at the moment is about social media and that is great because there is a lot you can do with it but at the end of the day we are a big social media blog with a strong presence across various social channels yet over 70% of our traffic still comes via Google. That is the same for most of the big sites in the world and search engines can’t be ignored. I wouldn’t do SEO from day to day but we had some basic work done at the start by a professional which has done us proud over the last 18 months. Don’t fuss about it every day and certainly don’t write for search engines but do take a little time to get your SEO in order at the start.

8.Focus On Content And Not Design

It’s tempting to spend all your time on design and fiddling about with everything from widgets to the various plugins that you can add to your blog. The best piece of advice I can give you form this whole list is to forget about all that stuff and just focus on content. You’ll want to make sure that your design is slick at the start but people visit blogs to read content and not to look at your lovely shiny widgets in the side bar.

9.Make It Easy For People To Contact You

Sounds like a very easy tip but you would be amazed at just how many people make it hard to be contacted on their blog. I can understand it in some cases where you actually don’t want to be contacted and are just blogging for fun but if you are blogging for a business reason then having several simple ways for people to get in touch is essential.

10.Be Consistent

There is nothing worse than going to a blog only to see that it hasn’t been updated in a couple of weeks. You don’t need to post every single day like we do here but you do need to set your reader’s expectations. If you only have time to blog once a week then keep it consistent and stick to that.

11.Don’t Just Write About You

As much as you might think it’s exciting for people to read about the awards you win and all the work projects you do don’t just write about you and your work. There is no harm dropping in the odd post or sharing things like new offices or staff arrivals but if you only write about your own company nobody is going to be interested in reading about that day in day out.

12.Stop Watching TV Or Going To The Pub

It takes an awful lot of time to write a good blog. Sometimes it takes us as up to 2 hours per post per day. I’m not saying that you should take that much time to write your blog but it will take time if you want to make a serious effort at it. You’ll have to stop going for that extra pint during the week, stop watching the football or watching your favorite soap operas and just blog instead. There is no short cut and it will take a lot of work but hopefully the results will be well worth it.

13.Stay Within Your Niche

It’s tempting to write about things that you are passionate about on your blog. I’d love to write about football or sports but I can’t and don’t because this is a social media blog. I’ll often find ways to work it in to the odd blog post but people read your blog because they want to hear the latest news or insight from that industry. Writing off topic will lose you readers and mean you can’t grow as big of an audience.

14.Make Your Blog International

This might not apply to everybody but we try and make our blog international and not Ireland specific. It’s not that we don’t want to focus on the Irish market but by writing about local stories only you essentially pigeon hole yourself as a local blog and limit the size of your potential audience. Think big.

15.Do Some Fun Projects

We always try and do some little fun projects here on the blog like the internet subway map or the video of UK stats and it’s important that you do the same and something that people can share with their networks. They take a lot of research and some extra work in the evenings but they are well worth doing because they get you thinking about your industry in a very different way.

16.Praise The Work Of Others Within Your Industry

Don’t think of other people within your industry as competitors. Instead think of them as people with like minded interests who will probably be interested in your content. The world is plenty big to have competitors and still survive so if you see some great work within your industry make sure to highlight it and praise others because the same thing might happen to you one day.

17.Mix With The Offline World

Networking online is great but the power of networking in the real world can not be underestimated. Be it speaking at events, attending industry events or just going for a pint with bloggers within your industry it really is a powerful way of highlighting your blog. Don’t be scared to add your blog URL to business cards and other printed material.

18.Focus On Subscribers

Subscribers should be the holy grail. What are subscribers? RSS, Email, people who follow your blog on Twitter, Facebook likes or even Youtube subscribers. The important thing about subscribers is that they are people who are saying “yes I like this content and I would love to be alerted as soon as you have some more”. They are not passers by but people who will see your content as soon as you publish it and they are the life blood of your blog. They are the hard core readers!

19.Promote Your Blog

This might seem like a very obvious thing to say but it’s amazing how many people build blogs and then just expect people to magically appear there to read it. There are something like 200 million blogs in the world and nobody is going to notice yours unless you promote it a little! Reach out to bigger publications with your best content and don’t be afraid to shout about your blog.

20.Guest Blog

This is one that takes a lot of time and effort but is probably the quickest way of growing the audience on your own blog. The important thing to remember is that you should not just post any old content on other blogs but should always aim to have the best content on to other sites. Pick sites that have large established audiences within the same niche as yourself and offer to write content for them. It’s a way of raising your profile as a blogger and the other blogs will be only to happy to get great free content from you.

21.Engage Away From Your Own Blog

Comment. Comment. Comment. It’s one of the most important things that you can do and is all about building relationships with other people within your niche and the best way to do that is through comments. Be thoughtful and actually engage with their content rather than just coming along and saying “great post”. Add to the discussion and show your knowledge and other people will see your passion and knowledge and discover your own blog. It’s also important to realize that people within your own niche will be more likely to read your blog as well given your similar passions and interests.

50 Of The Best Social Media And Technology Blogs In The World

Niall Harbison — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:53:12 +0000

Social media has really exploded in the last couple of years and there are some great blogs out there sharing tons of content and it is getting to the stage where it is nearly impossible to keep track of them all. With that in mind I wanted to make a list of 50 of the biggest social media and tech blogs. Some offer great insight, some have the latest news and some are focused on giving you practical advice to improve your blog or business. They might not all be for you as they are all at different levels but you’ll hopefully find a couple of blogs on this list that are well worth bookmarking and reading on a regular basis. If you think your blog should be on there or know of any other good ones makes sure to leave a link to it in the comments. Here is my list of 50 great social media and tech blogs form around the world…

Social Media Examiner

This blog is a great mixture of social media news, helpful hints and tips as well as great selection of lists and reviews of apps and services. You’ll also some great interviews as well as examples of social media campaigns that have been a success.

Convince And Convert

This blog is written Jay Baer and as he says himself…Iâ€™m a tequila-loving, hype-free social media strategy consultant, speaker, and author that helps leading companies and PR firms harness the awesome power of the social Web. Iâ€™m the founder of Convince & Convert, a social media strategy firm with clients across North America.

Techcrunch

This blog is probably one of the best known in the world and features about 20 posts per day featuring everything from start up reviews to technology and apps. Recently acquired by AOL the site has a massive 4 million subscribers and really is the heart beat of technology news from around the world.

Brass Tack Thinking

This Blog gives you a different way of thinking more than anything and features some really great posts that will get you thinking outside the box. Amber and Tamsen are well respected within the industry and you’ll start thinking differently after reading this blog for a while which can only be a good thing.

Brian Solis

This Blog has been one of the most influential in the social media space for the last couple of years and Brian really was one of the early leading lights and trend setters in terms of embracing social media as it’s own industry. Still pumping out quality content as well.

Webinknow

This blog by David Meerman Scott offers excellent insight in to marketing and leadership strategies. Also worth checking out are his books with the most notable being The New Rules of Marketing & PR.

Markting Profs

This blog is written by a large team and in their own words..It’s a rich and trusted resource that offers actionable know-how to help you market your products and services both smarter and better. Entrepreneurs, small-business owners and marketers in the worldâ€™s largest corporations make up its 373,000 subscribers, making it the largest in its category. Through the MarketingProfs Web site, newsletters, conferences, seminars, forums and so onâ€¦ we help you navigate your way to market your business and keep you informed of the newest and best tools. Think of us as a beacon of light illuminating the path through the clutter

Copy Blogger

This Blog is one my favorites on the web and their clear writing style and great practical tips make it a must read. A great place to stop off and get inspiration if you are publishing any of your own content online. The real beauty is that you don’t need massive amounts of technical knowledge to start reading this blog either and you’ll be picking up and implementing tips in no time.

Social Media Explorer

This blog is written by Jason Fall’s (you can see a full interview that we did with him a couple of months ago here) and it has been offering great insight to the social media industry in general. Well worth checking out.

Dave Fleet

This blog by David Fleet is a must read for any comms professionals. Now based in Toronto, Canada, Dave has worked in marketing and communications for major corporations and public sector organisations on both sides of the Atlantic, including Hitachi Europe, Lloyds TSB and the Ontario government before turning to the agency side. Before joining Edelman, Dave was Vice President of Digital Communications at Thornley Fallis Communications.

Kikolani

This Blog written by Kikolani is simple and elegant as well as being forever useful. As she says herself…I hope to share my interests on this site with the hopes that everyone who comes here can find something technically beautiful, artfully beneficial, and useful. I also hope to continue my path of self-discovery through blogging. Professionally, I am an Internet Marketing Specialist at Vertical Measures.

Dosh Dosh

This blog is incredibly popular with the content being made up of some great lists, guides and explanation posts that are usually about the Internet in some way. Lots of little gems here on a daily basis and you’ll find lots of other interesting content just by reading this blog.

Viperchill

This Blog mostly features ways in which to grow website and blog traffic. Lots of very practical examples and things that you can take away and try on your own site.

The Future Buzz

This blog is written by Adam Singer. The Future Buzz is a blog about web marketing/PR strategies, spreading buzz in the blogosphere and building long-term visibility for your brand, business, and art on the web. Bloggers, marketers, freelance writers, entrepreneurs, artists, small business owners and public relations professionals will all benefit from the content here.

Soshable

This Blog as you can guess from the title is pretty much all about social media. As they say themselves…Soshable will try to keep up. We want our readers to have access to more than just news and announcements. We want opinions, and not just ours. By tapping into the minds and resources of some of the brightest stars and most knowledgeable people in the business, we want to present the social Internet on a golden platter for everyone to enjoy.

Conversation Agent

This Blog is well known and written by industry expert Valeria Maltoni. As she says about herself..Valeria is Director of Strategy at Powered, Inc. She built one of the first online communities associated with Fast Company magazine. A brand strategist with 20 years of real-world corporate experience, 10 of which online, sheâ€™s worked with Fortune 500 and small start up companies in 5 industries.

Brand Builder

This Blog is written by Olivier Blanchard and does pretty much what is says in the title! As he says himself…As BrandBuilder Marketingâ€˜s principal and senior strategist, I help companies develop, build, integrate, manage and measure Social Media Programs. I also help companies manage their reputations online and offline, and establish leadership in their markets.

Digital Buzz

This blog Features the latest digital ad campaigns, hot new websites, interactive marketing ideas, virals, industry news, social media, insights, and other great digital trends from all over the world. What more could you want form a blog than all that?

Web Strategist

This blogis written by Jeremiah Owyang who is one of the leading lights in the business and really arrived super early to the social media space. As he says himself…As a Web Strategist, I strive to deliver insight on disruptive technologies and their impact on how companies communicate with their customers. Iâ€™ve been writing this blog since 1996, and am honored that itâ€™s been recognized as a top analyst blog within the industry.

All Facebook

This blog covers one very popular topic at the moment which is the Facebook the world’s largest social network. Amazing that a blog can be dedicated to one social network but they are never short of quality content and lots of interesting content in there that you can learn from.

Fast Gush

This blog certainly does have one of the most interesting names on the list but don’t let that take away form the excellent content that you are likely to find here. As they say themselves…Fastgush was started in April 2010 with the aim of providing readers with the latest and the best Social media news. We make sure the content is most relevant and of highest quality. We have in-house as well as freelance writers who contribute on a daily basis and add their individual touch to the posts.

The Next web

This blog is our favorite on the list apart from our own!!!(because we write lots of guest posts there and love Zee and the gang). Really is one of the sharpest tech blogs out there with all the latest news and reviews of everything from tech to social media and gadgets. A must read.

Readwriteweb

This blog is one of the old classics and really does feature quality content on a regular basis. Great insight in to the industry and what I love is that rather than just going with the same stories as everybody else they actually delve a little deeper with excellent insight and reviews.

Social Wayne

This blog looks at everything for apps and technology all the way through to social media. As he says himself…Wayne Sutton helps individuals, start ups and businesses succeed in understanding how to communicate on the social web via brand strategy, social networks and location-based services. With nearly 10 years experience in the technology and social media sector, heâ€™s provided counsel to business leaders ranging from founders of small start-ups and representatives of non-profit organizations to CEOs of large and small corporations

Danny Brown

This blog is by well known industry veteran Danny Brown. As he says himself…My blog is featured in the AdAge Power 150 list as well as Canadaâ€™s Top 50 Marketing Blogs, and won the Hive Award for Best Social Media Blog at the 2010 South by South West festival.Iâ€™ve worked with some of the biggest companies in technology, digital and consumer, including RIM, British Telecom, Orange, Microsoft Canada, IBM, Ford Canada, FedEX, Scotiabank, Vodafone, Dell and LG Electronics.

Social Times

This Bog is an excellent look at everything from technology and social media to gadgets and all the latest Youtube videos that are creating a buzz. A great place to see what is happening in a wide range of industries and always an enjoyable read.

Socialnomics

This blog is by popular blogger and author Erik Qualman who we have featured a good bit here on the blog. You’ll find great in depth insight in to social media here as well as some of his famous videos!

PR Squared

This Blog is written by industry veteran Todd Defren. As he says himself Todd Defren is recognized globally as a Social Media & Public Relations innovator, thinker & lecturer. His blog, PR-Squared, is routinely among the top 20 blogs on AdAgeâ€™s Power150. Defren is a principal at SHIFT Communications, a hybrid PR firm named â€œNew Media Agency of the Yearâ€ in 2008 and â€œAgency of the Yearâ€ in 2007. The $12M company works with clients such as Club Med, Quiznos, Jim Beam Brands, Bing and Wells Fargo.

Neville Hobson

This blog features lots if insight in to the online world. As Neville himself says it’s….. a place at the intersection of business, communication and technology. Sometimes, it’s a collision. I’m a communicator, blogger and podcaster based in the UK, and head of social media in Europe for WCG, London. Do take a look around here, leave a comment, join in. Get in touch if you’d like to. Enjoy your experience here and thanks for visiting.

Steve Radick

This blog does what it says on the tin and basically looks in to social media strategy online. As the author Steve Radick says himself…I was recently named one of PRNewsâ€™ 15 to Watch for in 2009 and was a contributing author to the recently released Gov 2.0 book, â€œState of the eUnion, Government 2.0 and Onwards.â€œ I also serve on the Advisory Board for the SmartBrief on Social Media and Governingpeople.com, the Program Committee for the Government 2.0 Expo Showcase, and 2010?s Government 2.0 Expo. I was also recently named one of the expert bloggers for AIIMâ€™s Enterprise 2.0 Community.

Social Web Tools

Don’t need to be a genius to see whatthis blog is about. Basically lots of information and practical examples of all the latest online tools and apps. You’ll always find some great little gems in here that you hadn’t spotted before.

Scobelizer

This blog really is the heart beat of some of the most interesting start ups that the author Robert Scoble has fantastic access to. He’ll often feature early sneak previews and demos from young start ups as well as videos from some of the biggest tech announcements around the world. Somebody who knows technology and start ups inside out.

Gigaom

This blog is another great source for tech news and all the latest gadget reviews. Does have quite an American slant to the news but a real must read for anybody in to their gadgets.

Hubspot

You might recognize the company behindthis blog as they have some popular internet tools including website analyzers. The blog is a great example of how a company blog can add value by providing great information about the industry while drawing potential customers in to their other services.

Creative Guerilla Marketing Blog

This blog also does exactly what it says on the tin with some great simple examples of marketing in the real world. As the author Ryan says himself..I decided to start this blog because I was tired of searching google images for guerrilla marketing examples, only to find a bunch of repeats. I saidâ€¦why not start a blog to collect all these images that are scattered over the web and share my passion for guerrilla marketing and advertising with the world!

Jaffe Juice

This Blog features lots of really creative content with a particular focus on video. There are lots of examples of social campaigns from all over the world and you’ll get plenty of inspiration from this blog.

Techipedia

This blog is written by Tamar as she says herself…Tamar Weinberg is a freelance writer and author of The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web (Oâ€™Reilly, July 2009) who specializes in social media consulting and strategy, blogger outreach, reputation management, and search engine marketing (SEO, link building, and Pay Per Click Marketing). She has been involved in the Internet since the early 90s and has dabbled in social online interactions for more than fifteen years.

Fresh Peel

This blog gets on the list both for it’s beautiful simple clean design and it’s inspiring content. As they say themselves…The Marketing Fresh Peel is peeling back the old ideas and traditions of marketing and branding by exploring new and innovative strategies for connecting with consumers. Ripe ideas are all around us. Open your mind and let the creative juices flow.

Smart Blog

This blog is one that again does exactly what it says on the cover. As they say themselves… SmartBrief is a media company on a mission to save you time and keep you smart. The premise behind SmartBrief is simple: thereâ€™s too much information out there and too little time in the day to read it all. Our editors hand-pick the most relevant and important news from all over, summarize it, link to the original sources and deliver it for free.

Conversation Marketing

This blog features lots of simple little tips around internet marketing as well as simple prcatical examples from around the web. In their own words…Conversation Marketing is the product of a lot of, well, conversations, and a general sense that, until now, no one’s done a really good job of tying all the separate components of a successful Internet marketing strategy into a single package. Lots of people have created and thrown around phrases like ‘Web 2.0′ and ‘Social media’. But those phrases only make things more confusing.

Logic + Emotion

This blog features some great insight in to the industry as a whole. As the author David says himself…I am currently a senior vice president at Edelman Digital, the interactive arm of global communications firm Edelman. I have 14 years experience in the industry with the majority of my time spent in digital marketing and user experience design. An active participant in the industry, I write Logic + Emotion which is ranked in the top media + marketing blogs according to Advertising Age. My writing and visual thinking has been cited by Forrester, The Boston Globe and has landed me in BusinessWeek on several occasions including their â€œBest of 2006â€. I also write at the Harvard Business Review.

Scott Monty

This blog is probably best know for the fact that it’s author is the head of social media at Ford and was seen as one of the pioneers of getting social media embraced within a large organization like Ford. Great insights and some smart writing here as well.

The Blog Herald

This blog focuses mostly news and features that appeal to bloggers but having said that they do also often touch on social media and other topics that would have wider interest to non bloggers. A good mix of content and somewhere that should be added to your daily list of blogs to stop off at.

The Buzz Bin

This Blog features lovely clean interface with smart useful content. In their own words…The Buzz Bin provides a point of view on integrated communications, including PR, social media, interactive and general marketing topics. We serve our mission â€“ as well as our customers, employees and the general industry â€“ when our point of view stimulates meaningful conversations. Topics range from strategy and tactics to news commentary and trend analysis. The discussion should be provocative enough to encourage questions, disagreements, and meaningful dialog as to whether we are right or wrong. Itâ€™s not about being safe, itâ€™s about pushing the envelope, thinking and, hopefully, learning.

Kyle Lacy

This blog which is self titled features lots of great advice about online marketing. Kyle also writes books on the subject and as he says himself…Prior to starting Brandswag, Kyle worked with a student run record label at Anderson University as the Vice President of Marketing. Kyle worked extensively with recording artist Jon McLaughlin on developing social and Internet applications to increase brand awareness. Myspace and Facebook marketing was one of the triggers that led to Jon being signed to Island Records where he tours today. After starting at Brandswag Kyle has worked and trained with companies from 50 to 1500 employees including Panasonic, ExactTarget, Ruthâ€™s Chris and the Make-a-Wish Foundation of America.

Social Media.biz

This blog features lots of the latest social media news and is targeted at businesses. As they say themselves their goals are…. To help busiÂnesses and orgaÂniÂzaÂtions achieve maxÂiÂmum impact with their social media stratÂegy or campaigns and to highÂlight news, trends, tools and resources around social media, social netÂworks and Web 2.0.

Google Blogoscoped

This blog is an interesting concept because as they say themselves 80% of the content is dedicated to following what Google does. Given the size of Google and the amount of industries they are involved in it means that this blog always has lots of interesting content and will also feature the odd non Google Story.

Venturebeat

This blog is a look at the business side of start ups, technology and social media. Comes at all the big tech stories of the day from a very business perspective and really does stand out from the crowd in terms of quality content with a difference.

Social Media Today

This Blog focuses only on social media and has a large range if posts including insight and reviews of all the major players in the space. As they say themselves…We help large companies leverage the enormous power of social media to build deeper relationships with potential customers and other constituencies that influence the development of new business. We have found that our primary metrics of success are levels of engagement and business leads.

Dan Zarrella

This blog by Dan Zarella features lots of great content that mostly focuses on social media. As he says in his own bio…Dan Zarrella is an award-winning social, search, and viral marketing scientist and author of the Oâ€™Reilly Media book â€œThe Social Media Marketing Bookâ€œ. He has a background in web development and combines his programming capabilities with a passion for social marketing to study social media behavior from a data-backed position and teach marketers scientifically grounded best practices.

180/360/720

This blog has one of the most unusual titles and I have no idea how you are supposed to remember the URL without bookmarking it. Having said that the content is top quality and it focuses mostly on marketing with lots of innovative campaigns and insights shared here to give you inspiration.

10 Simple Convertable Goals For Your Business Blog

Niall Harbison — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:11:00 +0000

If I am ever teaching people about business blogging and explaining the many positives that can come of it I always make sure that people have some clear goals in place. There is nothing wrong with blogging for pleasure and not having any goals but if you are spending some of your working day blogging you need to make sure it is paying off for you in terms of sales or business leads or traffic or whatever else your goals happen to be. I thought it would help If I used our blog here (80% of our new business leads from various countries come through the blog) to show you some of the goals that we had in place. It’s not good enough just having traffic either, there needs to be something tangible at the end of it all. Here are some of the areas that we focus on here on our own blog, they won’t work or be relevant to all of your businesses but you might be able to add a couple to your own business blog…

Goals In Reverse Order

10.Facebook Shares, Retweets, Digg, Stumbleupon etc

Funny that this one is the bottom of the list given that many would probably think it is the most important. You’ll see various sharing buttons all over the website to encourage users to spread the content to others. People use these quite a lot on this site but we don’t place that much importance on them as we know that many can just be automatic shares, or bots and they are just inflated numbers. What they can do though is expose the blog to a new audience who might just come along, read an article and describe to subscribe in one of the other ways provided.

9.Youtube Subscribers

Not that important for most people but we have some interesting ideas around our Youtube channel and always need as many subscribers as possible. A subscriber on Youtube is somebody who is opting in to get an email form you every single time you publish a new video and that is incredibly powerful because every time you publish a new video that is putting it in front of a tailor made audience who could pass it on to others if the content is good enough.

8.Facebook Likes

There seems to be a mad scramble on to acquire likes at the moment and it is understandable when you think of the future marketing potential that you have when somebody likes your brand. Not only is that appearing in their news feed and spreading the word to others but it also means that they are subscribing to your content for when you push it through the wall at a later date. Likes are hard to acquire but they provide you with a great captive audience and mean people can bond with your brand over time.

7.RSS Subscribers

I know that there are still millions of people who have no idea what RSS is and there is a certain chain of thought doing the rounds that RSS is becoming less relevant but in terms of subscribers to me it is the most important metric. An RSS reader is somebody who wants to get your content and not miss a single blog post, they are very very committed to your content unlike some other types of subscribers. I’ve seen a lot of research that shows that RSS subscribers are worth up to $8 per person.

6.Speaking Engagements

This is a bit of a long shot and not one that will apply to all blogs or businesses but we get about 2 or 3 speaking requests from people who have read this blog per month. When you speak at an event you are essentially being positioned as an expert in your given field (if you are or not is another debate) as well as being seen by a large audience. What this does is it lets even more people find your blog and you will find that business leads nearly always follow speaking at events.

5.Unique Visitors

Traffic doesn’t always equate to new business. I could probably get a million visitors to a Lady Gaga blog but I doubt I’d be able to generate any serious revenue from it. Traffic does help as you get bigger with some of the other areas on this list and you’ll find that as your blog or site scales it will actually become easier to grow. The links from other sites will start to flow, more people will bookmark your site and as more people read it more people again will start sharing the site and subscribing to it.

4.Ebook Downloads

When somebody downloads our E book there is a very good chance that they are interested in social media. There is also a very good chance that they own a business and might want to implement some social media that they learn form the E Book. They may also pass the E book to friends (who might need our services) or they might print a copy and leave it around the office. Either way having people engage with our content in the offline world is exactly what we want people to do and plenty of business leads have come via the E Book.

3.Ancillary Services

We run plenty of training days, conferences and engage in a number of other ways in the offline world. Having 120,000 people reading this blog every month gives us amazing access to a huge number of people who might be interested in some of those products or services. These additional products that we offer show that you don’t have to have flashy ads on your site to make money from your blog.

2.Business Emails

A fairly good barometer of the success of what we do here on the blog although the quality of emails we get is never going to be as good as the quality of actual calls we get. We often get very good business pleads in via email but you also get lots of people looking for free information (fair enough and we try to respond to as many as possible) or other forms of contact that are not related to a business lead.

1.Business Calls

This is the holy grail and probably the main reason for writing the blog. At the end of the day we run a business and if people are calling us looking for our services that means that we have achieved the main target that we set out to on our blog. You know when somebody calls you and asks about your services that is pretty much as serious as it gets in terms of a lead.

Set Your Own Goals

These goals might not be the ones that you should set for your blog but what is not in doubt is that you should have some sort of goal, it might be as simple as an email capture box. We know as a business that if we drive traffic to this blog then all of the goals above will start to get met. We know that increasing the numbers above always leads to more business either directly or indirectly over time so it’s a bit of a no brainer really. What are your business goals from your blog or do you not have any yet?

In defence of bloggers – we’re not inadequate & pimpled

Lauren Fisher — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:53:10 +0000

Andrew Marr has been a hero of mine for a long time. Unfortunately the shine completely fell off this week, when he denounced bloggers as ‘inadequate, pimpled and single’ , while citizen journalism also gets the benefit of his boot, being described as ‘the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night’. The rant doesn’t end there, which was carried out against bloggers, at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. This is an incredibly unfortunate episode – the significance of which shouldn’t be underestimated. When someone this influential in the media industry speaks out with such vehemence against bloggers, it’s something you sit up and take notice of.

The single biggest problem with Andrew Marr’s argument, is that he dismisses bloggers in total, as if ‘blogging’ is the unifying factor and therefore we all operate in the same way. This is completely illogical, as if by becoming a blogger, you are immediately like all other bloggers. Compare a Mashable to a Wiggly Worms blog and you see where his argument really falls down ; they are completely different from each other. A blog is a means of producing content, it is a form of content in itself. It really is time to get away from the idea of ‘bloggers’ being one and part of the same crowd. It is really no different to criticise bloggers, than it is is to criticise writers outright. Any point that Andrew Marr might have had is unfortunately lost in this. But putting this misunderstanding to one side, is there any validity in his arguments against citizen journalism?

The future of citizen journalism

According to Marr it’s nothing but late night spewing and it will never be a replacement for traditional journalism. On the latter point, I completely agree. But then, this isn’t what citizen journalism is about. Rather than being an either/or for traditional journalism, it is a new type of journalism that is enhancing the way we receive news. It should be something that can co-exist with traditional journalism, which in my opinion should never be replaced, but can adapt and evolve. And when so many publications, particularly local newspapers are suffering huge staff losses or going out of print, citizen journalism can go some way to filling this gap, with a new type of news. Change doesn’t have to be a bad thing and viewing the news industry as juxtaposed between traditional and citizen journalism slightly misses the point.

The potential of citizen journalism is huge. And while I in no way endorse what Andrew Marr says, I’d like to look at it fairly and address some of the points that may have given rise to this particular point. As good as citizen journalism is, at some point you do have to consider the issue of regulation. If it is to become a much more widestream contributor to the news agenda, then how this is moderated is something that has to be discussed. There is, unfortunately the odd case that seeks to devalue the role of citizen journalism, with fake news and stunts. I would hope that this is seen as a reflection of the fact that citizen journalism is still in its infancy and that as it grows, new rules and ethics will be adopted that fit the medium. To devalue it in the way that Andrew Marr did while it still so new is potentially damaging, when it seeks to democratise the news industry.

In defence of bloggers

As much as it is disappointing that the tirade came from such an influential person, the rebuttal has come from someone just as influential, in the shape of Krishnan Guru Murthy. His piece in the Guardian yesterday, is written in defence of the ‘blogging masses’. What I like about the response is that it doesn’t come in the form of completely ripping Marr to shreds, or attempting to emerge as a hero among bloggers. Indeed, he refers to some bloggers himself as ‘obnoxious trolls’. But it’s the context in which this comment comes that’s important, as he argues that you might think of SOME bloggers in this way. From this very standpoint, Guru Murthy wins.

What’s interesting is that he discusses the social media policy of different news organisations. While some clearly embrace social media – Channel 4 and the Guardian chief among them, at the BBC, according to Guru Murthy, journalists are restricted from blogging or tweeting unless the content has been pre-approved by an editor. This in itself may explain why there are so many holes in Andrew Marr’s argument. And you can’t completely blame him for this, when the news organisation he works for is so strict about online policies. When you’re not able to immerse yourself in social media and experience it in the way that the majority of people do, it’s easier to misunderstand it.

Why Does Europe Lack Great Big Tech Blogs?

Niall Harbison — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:29:35 +0000

I think there is a gaping hole on this side of the Atlantic for tech blogs. It really annoys me when all the content I read on a daily basis has an American slant to it and that we have nothing really tailored to the European market. I know we do have some blogs like Techcrunch Europe or The Guardian tech blogs but there just seems to be a real lack of quality content here in Europe and we all rely on what we get from the USA. I’m not sure what the problem is as we have a huge amount of interesting start ups and technology companies over here with some great innovation happening but for some reason nobody has been able to get a meaningful tech blog off the ground that I go to every single day of the week. I know people will correct me in the comments and say there are some great blogs and I’m sure there are but they are niche, I am talking about a mainstream tech blog that is read and respected all over the world. So why are there no great tech blogs on this side of the pond?

The Language?

Lets face it I am never going to go and read a technology blog in either German or French and I would imagine the same is true in reverse. Europe is a collection of over 10 different languages so building a community around a blog is nearly impossible. The most obvious choice is of course English but by writing in one specific language you are effectively ruling out 80% of your audience from day 1 in Europe. Having said all of that there is no reason why your English language tech blog could not be read all over the world in English speaking countries to grow the audience.

Thinking Local

Too many blogs and websites pigeon hole themselves in to being an “Irish Blog” or an “English blog” and as soon as you do that and start writing about local content you effectively rule the rest of the world out. Nobody outside of Ireland is really interested in the Irish tech scene. I’m not saying that all blogs should be international because we certainly do need local blogging about local issues but too often blogs are happy to be the big fish in a small pond rather than trying to look at the bigger picture and try and attract a global audience.

The Lack Of A Tech Hub

Some might be able to make a case for London and the vibrant start up and tech community that is there. Some might even say Dublin with it’s huge tech players like Google and Facebook and thousands of staff but to be honest nothing compares to the scene over in Silicon Valley. Blogs are able to thrive in the USA because they have a central hub of activity, a geographical focus point where all the big companies are innovating, holding press conferences and have all their staff mingling with bloggers on a daily basis. Writing stories or breaking news from over here in Europe is nearly impossible and you are essentially relying on second hand knowledge or picking up tech news from American blogs.

Anybody Could Do It

Nearly all big blogs including Mashable and Techcrunch were started out of spare bedrooms before they grew in to fully fledged businesses employing writers all over the world and attracting huge traffic. The software that most of the top blogs use is free and with some simple modifications you can have a platform that can attract millions of readers if the content is good enough. There really is no barrier to entry to get in to this market all you need is a little drive, a lot of hard work and a basic understanding of the online world and the ways to find the latest news. It blows my mind that nobody has cracked the European technology blog market yet and I really do think it is a market that is wide open should the right person be able to overcome the couple of issues I mention above. I just wish there was a central hub with European technology news that could compliment the American focused blogs I already do read.

How To Deal With Negative Comments And Bad Online PR

Niall Harbison — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:32:53 +0000

If you publish a blog, make videos, engage on Twitter, take part in forums or engage in anyway online there is a very good chance you are going to come across some negative comments directed at you personally or towards your brand or business. It might even be more than a couple of comments as consumers online become more vocal and are empowered by tools that let them shout louder than ever when they feel slighted. It’s part and parcel of the web but for people affected by it for the first time it can be quite disconcerting and terrifying. If you find yourself in the middle of a web storm it can seem all encompassing and as if it is never going to end. Having been slap bang in the middle of plenty of negative online storms both personally and for clients here are some of my tips for navigating your way through the negative storm…

Pause Before You Engage

The natural reaction when somebody says something bad about you is to jump in and call them a name back. Nobody likes getting criticized and the natural reaction is to fight back. Fighting back with the same sort of negativity is only stooping to the low level of the commentator though and chances are you will regret it once you have cooled down and wish you had not reacted. If I see something that has really annoyed me or somebody has slammed a business I am involved with I’ll just go and make a coffee or have a walk and think about things before replying. If they have a valid point I’ll engage but if they are just out to cause negative damage for no valid reason I’ll just step back and leave it. It’s easier said than done at times but I find that the best bet is always restraint.

Don’t Threaten legal Action

I’ve had to talk lots of people out of wanting to take legal action over something that was said online. Mostly friends who own hotels and restaurants and who feel slighted by poor reviews but luckily I have usually been able to talk them out of it. There are laws that protect you to a certain extent but to be honest it really isn’t worth your while getting involved in that side of things and in many cases it will probably make things worse. People are going to mouth off about you or your brand or business online these days in the same way we used to in the pub and that is very hard to govern so for the most part you are just going to have to grin and bear it.

Talk About The Issue Not The Person

Although you may know some of the people leaving the comment and they might even be attacking you personally you should never go after the person and instead focus on the issue. Getting personal is only going to make matters worse and you’ll be far more respected if you address the parts of the argument that merit a response. Attacking somebody personally will only drag things down and result in worse personal attacks in return.

People Wouldn’t Say It To Your Face

Some people say the most horrible and cruel things online but meet them in real life and they have suddenly there is not a peep out of them and they are as nice as pie. The web gives people anonymity and typing insults on a keyboard never seems as harmful as doing it in real life. You have to understand that the web lets people say things in a very nonchalant way that they never would in real life and that they probably don’t mean exactly what they are saying. So if somebody calls you a fat bastard don’t worry the chances are that you are probably nothing of the sort.

Maybe They Have A Point?

There are times when you come in for criticism online that is fully deserved. You might have released a faulty product, provided poor service to a client or made a false accusation that you thought was right at the time or simple had your facts wrong. There is nothing wrong with being wrong, it happens to the best of us all the time. The key is admitting when you are wrong and not digging the hole any deeper. I’ve been called out plenty of times for getting my facts wrong here on the blog and instead of trying to back track or I’ll just admit it and change the bog post in red to show that I was wrong. People will respect you so much more if you admit you are wrong and just put your hands up and say you got it wrong and offer to fix it.

Accept That 10% Of People Won’t Like You

Most people like to feel liked. Some people cant live without that feeling but when you spend time online you have to realize that 10% of people are not going to like you. It could be for a number of reasons including your popularity, your poor products, they are in competition etc but the important thing to remember is that not everybody is going to like you no matter what you do. No matter how many problems you fix for some people or however nice you are to them they might still not like you and the best way to react here is to leave the 10% to their own devices and keep engaging and keeping the other 90% who do like you even happier.

It’ll Be Over Before It Has Begun

When you are the middle of a storm of negativity online it can seem like there is nowhere to hide. People might be attacking you on blogs, sharing links in seconds through Twitter and Facebook and talking to others via IM and email about you, your brand or business. Bad news spreads at the speed of light and it can feel all encompassing. The good news is that even the biggest storm gets old very quickly and it’s very unusual for any negativity to last for more than a day online. Just sit tight and follow some of the actions above and it’ll be over before you know it. What you should remember though is that thanks to Google the negative stuff will stick around forever so although it is all over quickly the bad effects could stick around for years.

If You Have Strong Opinions Then Grow Thick Skin Fast

It’s the oldest saying in the book but if you are willing to dish it then you should be willing to take it. If you are online writing negative stuff about other people or leaving poor reviews then you have to expect some of the same stuff in return. In the same way if you are brave enough to put up blog posts, photos and video content then you need to be aware that people will come along and slag it no matter how good you might think it is. The Internet is a fast moving place where people have strong opinions that they are really not scared to share and shout about so if you are going to be hanging about here then you better get some thick skin pretty fast.