Courtesy of knowyourmeme,com

#1: Tumblr is Great For SEO

Because Tumblr is indexed, and contains lots of social sharing – it has the power to attract a ton of traffic to your websites.

#2: Microblogging on Tumblr

Tumblr allows you to microblog, which means that you can share your posts quickly and easily with your social communities.

#3: Shorter Posts on Tumblr

Tumblr allows bloggers to post small snippets of content for the world to see. It’s a great platform to use if you only have time for 250 word blog posts.

#4: Post Mixed Media as They Are

If you use Tumblr, you can post images, videos, links and more, directly to the platform – without having to add in any content.

#5: Use Tumblr To Source Great Content

Tumblr can be used as a research tool, where you can find great content in a matter of minutes. Just browse through the blogs on offer, in your select category.

#6: Content Curation on Tumblr

Using Tumblr allows you to curate content, or collect it, by ‘reblogging’ or reposting blogs on your page that you’ve enjoyed. This is great for traffic and SEO.

#7: Tumblr is 100% Free

Unlike WordPress, which can cost a bit of money to put up properly – Tumblr is a completely free platform that doesn’t require any financial outlay.

#8: Track Your Progress With Analytics

You can connect your Tumblr account to Google Analytics and actually track your progress. This will help you improve your blog, your SEO and your brand visibility.

#9: Build Interactive Communities

Tumblr was built to encourage interaction, like a real social networking site. You’ll find that getting people to respond to you is a lot easier here.

#10: Improve Your Business Network

You’re guaranteed to find some of your niches biggest bloggers using Tumblr. They’re super simple to become friends with, and that means better business networks.

These are just 10 benefits of using Tumblr online. I’d say if you have a propensity towards microblogging anyway, and you love to use Twitter – then Tumblr is a better option for you. WordPress is great, but it requires longer posts.

You can sign up for a free Tumblr account here. There are literally thousands of free custom themes to choose from, or you can get one designed for you. You can also set auto publishing parameters, so that your blogs are shared on Facebook and Twitter.

You’ll know after a few days if this platform suits you better than WordPress – because you’ll start off by using it all the time!

What do you think of Tumblr? Give it a rating out of 5, and leave your comment here!

Courtesy of almightydad.com

#1: Blogs are Not Article Syndication Sites

A blog is supposed to have variations in content. You can’t treat it like an article marketing campaign. You’ll get bored, and so will your readers. List posts, guest posts, how-to’s, interviews, commentary posts, infographics, social opinion – use them all!

#2: Be Extremely Relevant and Time Specific

The Internet is all about relevance, so make sure that your blog posts are about hot topics. If it’s breaking news, you’ll get more hits and more readers super-fast!

#3: Short, Punchy, Epic Titles

Can you say in 5 words or less what your post is about, and why people should it? Work on this skill, it will make a huge difference. Titles sell your blog post, and that’s 30% of the struggle.

#4: Yes, Keywords are Still Important

We might be living in a post Panda, Penguin world, but keywords are still vital if you want your content to show up in the search engines. Don’t leave it out, or you’ll regret it.

#5: Find 5 Influential Friends and Publish There

Guest posting is essential for a good blog strategy. Find 5 blogs that are brilliant in your niche, and befriend the bloggers. Post on these sites often to attract new readers.

#6: Comment on Authority Blogs

Spend some time every day commenting on at least one or two authority blogs in your niche. Be yourself, use a gravatar – and add some quality insights there. Great for backlinks and building credibility.

#7: Promote User Generated Content

Your blog is a community centre, and it’s more fun to hang out there when there is more than one voice attached to the place. Get your fans to interact or create content!

#8: Find Problems, Then Solve Them

People online want simple, fast solutions to their problems. If you can create a blog post that does this, better than anyone else – you can bet that it will be a high traffic post.

#9: Feed Off Other Successful Posts

Find popular posts online, and create opinion posts about them. Add a new dimension to a heated argument, and you’ll nab more than a few readers along the way.

#10: Use Images and Videos Properly

Images should enhance your copy, and videos should be extremely relevant – if you’re going to use one. That’s why making your own video is a good idea. If that’s too time consuming, at least choose media that fits well.

Use these 10 insightful tips to build a successful blog with a large, thriving readership. It’s not impossible, it just takes time and strategy. You can do it!

Do you have a pro blogging tip to share with your SMM community? Share it with us here!

Courtesy of blog.abn.org.au

Your 10 Core Blog Networks

Now that your blog is up and running, you need to gather a solid readership. One of the most effective ways to do this, is by creating a ‘blog network.’ Your network should consist of the 10 absolute best blogs in your niche. Once you’ve found them all, you’re going to concentrate on becoming one their best readers.

Dismiss what you’ve heard about blog commenting. It’s perfectly acceptable to sign off with your name, company and blog URL. But don’t think for a second that you can do this for nothing. You’ll need to really read the posts, and think of an insightful, positive comment to leave behind.

There are a number of benefits to doing this. First of all, you’re backlinking to your blog. But at the same time, you’re promoting your blog and your expertise on the ten best blogs in your niche. You’re also forming personal relationships with these blog owners, which opens up possibilities down the line. Eventually, once they know who you are, you can request guest posts from them, or contribute posts to their blog.

Subscribe to all ten of these blogs, and watch out for specific posts that will enhance your authority when you comment.

Focus on 10 blogs – you don’t need any more than that to grow.

Random Comments For Added Exposure

Assuming you are using a useful site like StumbleUpon to find fresh blogs in your niche, you can hop around the net leaving comments. These random blog comments are strictly for backlinking purposes, but that doesn’t mean you can skimp on effort! Every comment you leave is an advert for your blog or business. When people see engaging comments, they will click through to your blog.

A lot of commenting programs embed your blog URL in your name, which is then published above your comment. There are also programs that allow html embedding in the comment, or they link to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts. It’s a good practice to set up a separate email address that you can use to track your comments. If people respond or reply – you must continue the conversation.

This can become difficult if you use your normal business email. The more comments you post, the more likely it is that you’ll have a ton of comment spam coming your way. Keep it separate, to keep it simple.

Whatever you do, don’t use blog commenting programs. Never spam people, ever. If the blog owner is good at what they do, they’ll never publish these comments. It’s a huge waste of time. Sacrificing your reputation to get a few backlinks is black hat marketing. It won’t help you build your readership. Time and effort will!

Do you think blog commenting is a great way to connect with page owners? Speak your mind, and be heard!

1)     When you post a video blog, search engines can’t determine the nature of the video or audio content so they analyze the text around the video.  To make your video blogs more search-friendly, make sure they are always accompanied by a keyword-optimized post.

2)     All businesses should post at least once a week. However, the higher the frequency, the greater the impact on your search engine rankings.

3)     Search Twitter for keywords and key phrases relevant to your blog posts to find potential readers. When you find Twitter users that have questions that your blog answers, share the link.

4)     Readers often bookmark longer posts, but rarely come back to them. Limit your blogs to two or three paragraphs to ensure your content is read.

5)     Putting a lot of effort into your blog content? Get more mileage out of your content by repurposing your blogs. You can use the content for e-zines, podcasts, whitepapers, press releases and other marketing resources.

Follow #SMMUChat every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. E.T. on Twitter by following the hashtag. You can use TweetGrid or TweetChat to help making participating in the chat easier.

#SMMUChat is a great opportunity to learn more about social media and network with other professionals, but don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what people are saying about #SMMUChat:

• @ BuckarooBiz @SMMagic @johnpaulsouza always put on an awesome #SMMUChat! We’ll be back next week! #socialmedia #marketing

• @justrightpm Thanks everyone. This is was a great session for me.

• @dconconi Really appreciate the tips @JohnPaulSouza and thanks to @SMMagic and all for the interesting chat.

• @LBarraco Thanks @johnpaulsouza @SMMagic for another insightful #SMMUChat… looking forward to next week!

Join #SMMUChat on Wednesday, November 9 to discuss Leveraging LinkedIn as a Marketing Tool. We’ll be discussing the best LinkedIn tools and features for generating leads and increasing sales and visibility.

Visit www.smmulive.com/smmuchat to submit your LinkedIn questions prior to the chat and don’t forget to invite your friends and colleagues.

Courtesy of tipsotricks.com

#1: Adjusting Your Strategy

If your blog readers aren’t commenting, then you’re not speaking about the stuff they’re really interested in. Always spend time putting together your topic list, based on research and past success.

#2: Ask a Question

At the end of each blog post, ask your readers a question. Make it something relevant to the post you‘ve just written. Start a conversation by being interested in the opinions of your community.

#3: Offer an Incentive

The easiest way to get comments is to promise a prize, an award or an incentive to the reader with the best comment. The second easiest way is to offer free advice to the winner in the form of a consultation.

#4: Write About a Blog

Bloggers love to see that their posts have been read and written about on other people’s blogs. If you want an instant community of comments, do posts based on other bloggers thoughtful publications.

#5: Products and Services

Reviews are an excellent way to get your readers to offer an opinion. Grab some niche relevant products or review a company’s services on your blog. Spread it around your social sites and wait for the comments to roll in.

#6: Be Controversial

Opinions are nice, but the most entertaining opinions come from controversy. If you don’t agree with something, blog about it – and ask your readers if they agree. Nothing like a heated debate to illicit intriguing comments.

#7: Comment Control

People comment based on your post, and on what others have said about your post. If you have a lot of spam comments, that could be scaring away your readers. These are the “I love your blog, it’s so interesting” posts that don’t add to the conversation.

#8: Buy Comments

Sometimes all your readers need is a little prompt. Employ a writer to create some juicy comments for your posts – and you’ll immediately see an increase in comments from your actual community.

#9: Publish Comments Quickly

When a new reader sees that their comment has still not been moderated, it discourages them from ever commenting again. Publish them quickly and often to reward your readers.

#10: The News

There is a reason why news sites have enormous comment streams. People love to give their opinion on something current that matters in the world. Use this to your advantage by incorporating news posts into your blog strategy.

These ten tips will help your posts get more comments in the long run – use them as often as you can for the best results possible!

Do you comment on blogs? What makes you want to comment? Please leave your opinion below!

Courtesy of digitallabs.com

#1: Adding Multimedia To Blogs

A blog is not only made up of words and ideas. If there’s one thing you can bet on – it’s that at least half or more of your readers prefer multimedia. Adding images, infographics, video and slideshare presentations is an excellent way to gain new readers. Figure out innovative ways to include multimedia in your posts to enhance them or create posts based on singular images or videos.

#2: Institute a Blog Outreach Program

The most successful bloggers know that a blog without an outreach program, is like a movie theatre without ticket sales. Your blog is not an island. It needs to make friends with other blogs. That means approaching experts in your field and offering to write a guest post for them. Or inviting them to write one for your blog. This will expose many readerships to your blog, and they will eventually become your readers too. If your blog isn’t good enough, get a makeover!

#3: Grow Your Facebook Fanbase

How does Facebook help your blog, you ask? A lot! Growing your Facebook fan base rapidly by adding in exciting apps and social games – can feed traffic directly to your blog in several ways. The most obvious being: adding a blog app to your page. Your blog roll will appear there and engage your Facebook fan base, turning them into long term blog readers. Viral sharing is key to great posts, and these happen most here.

#4: Use WordPress Properly

We don’t have to tell you that SEO is important – it makes the cyberworld go round. But getting a good blog readership is also about driving traffic, so it’s time to take your WordPress SEO seriously. Categories, tags and meta-data are the core of each post you publish. These keywords need to be included in your post copy, so that Google and other search engines start to like your copy as well.

#5: Advertising The Easy Way

Everything online happens because somewhere, someone has taken the time to create adverts or promotional material about it. If you want to boost those numbers, you need to invest in a display or PPC advertising campaign – preferably both. Paid media is what separates amateur blogs from pro-blogs. And once yours is bringing in the huge numbers, you can sell ad space there for money.

These five simple steps will help you attract and keep a readership of attentive fans. They’ll visit your blog more often, subscribe to your feed and become a fan of your other social media pages. That’s what you want, and with this 5 step formula – you can have it! Test it out and tell us how it goes.

What one action that you performed resulted in a boost in readership numbers for your blog? Share your experiences with our community below.

Courtesy of johnhaydon.com

#1: Where To Republish Your Blog Posts

Every time you create a blog post, whether it’s an announcement, a promotion or an info piece – you need to share it with your social media networks. If your blog feed is already on your Facebook page it will be auto-published there. If it’s not, then publish a direct link on your fan page wall. You should also publish the link on your Twitter page, and in your chosen LinkedIn group.

#2: Secondary Promotion

Once you have spread the link across your social networks, encourage your fans to share it. They can like or share your link on Facebook, retweet it on Twitter or recommend it to other people on LinkedIn. Social bookmarking is also extremely valuable here. Recommend your original blog post on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Delicious. Encourage your readers to share it here on all of your social pages.

#3: Tertiary Promotion

For a bit of an added boost, you can source other blogs and recommend your link there. It’s also important to include it in your email signature, or in your forum signature when you post comments that day. A creative way of driving more traffic there is to create a new post, based on a popular older post on your blog, and include it in your newsletter or email series.

#4: Themes and Theme Weeks

Many marketers use their blog as the center of their social marketing pursuits. Each week, they create a theme and write a series of blog posts about this specific topic. To support this theme, a number of tweets are created about that keyword, as well as several interesting Facebook updates. A LinkedIn group owner would start a new discussion thread on this topic. Some might even produce two or so Youtube videos supporting the topic.

They all feed each other, and act as a highly efficient way of creating, supporting and maintaining a successful strategy across many social networks. A blog is also an excellent place to gather feedback, have in-depth discussions and really find out what your readers want from you. It’s a five step process – planning, creation, publishing, interacting and listening.

Your blog strategy will fuel the rest of your social media strategies, strengthening them and contributing to an excellent social presence online. So get out there, and start using your blog in conjunction with your other social sites! For a social media strategy that works, your blog is the best place to start.

How do you use your blog to support your other social marketing activities? Please leave your insightful comment below!

Courtesy of blog.ineedhits.com

Your Business Blog Here

Any dedicated social media marketing manager will tell you that a blog sets the tone for all of their other social media pursuits. Think of it this way. Your business website is a place to list all of those boring services and products, mission statements and stuff – quite frankly, not a whole lot of people would ‘enjoy’ reading. People go to your business website when they mean business.

Your blog on the other hand is the place your potential clients go when they want to find out who you are, and what you really know about your industry. It’s the little mirror reflecting back all the positive things you’ve ever said and done – and that’s what converts these passive viewers into clients. There is no other place on the internet, where your brand can express itself better, than on your blog.

Odious Comparisons

A lot of marketers compare blogs with things like Facebook and Linkedin. And yes, these are highly interactive platforms that promote brand visibility online. But where would your Facebook page be without your blog? What would your fans read? At the heart of it all, your blog is the only truly customizable place that your brand has on the internet (aside from your website) – it’s your own tiny slice of the cloud.

Social networking enthusiasts will argue about that last statement. But really, when your business brand is on Facebook, it’s still on Zuck’s platform. Your blog belongs to you, and this means you can do anything you want to it. The reason why a blog is at the very centre of great social marketing, is because it’s your brands permanent home. You own it, you’re not just renting space there.

Brand Visibility on Blogs

A good blog strategy still has the potential to be the mightiest social tool of them all. Sure you have to work harder to attract readers, but once it takes off – you’re home free. Everything on your blog is directly linked to your brand. It’s not only the mouthpiece of your business, it’s the ears and eyes too. When you choose to publish a guest post, you’re saying, “Hey, this person has some great ideas.”

Essentially your brand becomes aligned with other brands or authorities in ways you just can’t do on social networks yet. We’ve always said that blogs are like having your own mini publishing company. It takes an editor, a journalist, a designer, and a marketing specialist to make it work.

So if the question, ‘is blogging still an effective way to promote your brand online?’ – is still on your mind, the answer is a resounding yes. But don’t fool yourself for one second. It’s not easy. It takes years of experience, and expertise to design, plan and implement an effective blog strategy. The best thing you can do is never stop learning. Social media develops at the speed of light, and blogging will too.

Do you think a blog is an effective way to promote brand visibility? Leave your comment below!

Courtesy of blogs.cisco.com

Actually if you use them properly, they really can help your strategy become successful. The moral here is – sometimes the small stuff does count. Let’s discuss why.

1. Running Your Own Polls

It’s never a bad idea to give your clients a faster, easier way to communicate their opinion, and that’s what a well planned poll, or series of polls, can do. Instead of having to post a comment on your blog, or your Facebook page, they simply need to click a button to register their opinion. Opinions are important – in fact, they make up the very fabric of all social media.

Polls give your clients a quick way to express how they feel about your company, a new product or service, or just on some general research that you’d like feedback on. A good example, is a poll to rate the quality of a blog post. You could even release a consecutive series of polls, that will eventually help you pinpoint exactly what your readers want from you.

In other words, running a well thought out poll is an excellent market research tactic, and will help keep your content, message or goals on track. Even LinkedIn has recognised the importance of polls. Without checks and balances like polls, a lot of information can be lost – which might eventually lead to social media failure.

The Two Main Types of Poll

A – The Question. Ask your community a question that will help you gather specific data on something important. It could be feedback on a new e-book, a website or a simple Twitter promotion.

B – The Quiz/Multiple Choice. This form of poll mines for data, and is largely based on personal opinion. It can be an excellent way to collect answers from your community. Would you prefer a, b, or c?

All in all, running your own polls will keep you informed about community opinion and that is invaluable. Structure your questions and quizzes well, and make a record of the time and date that the data came in. You’ll want to run the same poll again after a few months.

2. Watch Other People’s Polls

Do you know how much you can learn from checking in on competitor’s polls? There are companies just like you out there, asking their communities to vote, or give an opinion on something they’ve done. Many polls publish instant results, so it’s plainly visible on the page. Check for these every now and then for insight into your competitor’s market research.

Remember that polls should be used as a supportive market research tool. They don’t go into enough detail to complete the whole picture for you. Use them as an accompaniment to a larger, more qualitative plan. When you add enough pieces of the marketing puzzle together, a picture will begin to form! Just make sure that the content of your polls is worth the trouble.

Do you run polls to gather research? How effective are they? Please tell us!

Courtesy of ieplexus.com

Usually, these ‘instant viral hits’ are accompanied by 50 failed attempts that the same marketer was working on, in exactly the same way. So what is it that makes a picture, an article or a video go viral?

There are some clear underlying pointers you have to know about, if you ever want the slightest chance of being responsible for a viral sensation.

Having said that, there are also different levels of viral success. For a Fortune 500 business, 2 million people watching their Youtube video is a hit. For a small barbershop in an even smaller town, 8000 people checking in on their style pictures every few days is an incredible accomplishment.

The first lesson is – be realistic. Even if one of your articles is read by 400 people in the same day, a little bit of magic has happened. It is now up to you to discover why. Now, let’s get down to some must-have features in your next viral attempt.

1. Pick The Medium, Pick The Right Subject

A video is the most likely medium to go viral, then a picture, and then content. If you really want your subject to take off, then figure out a way to present it in the right medium.

It’s also a good idea to pick a popular subject and exploit it. Either that, or come up with something so entertaining, so funny, or so cute – that no one will be able to resist watching your video a million times.

It’s called the ‘Cute Cat Formula.’ Marketers realized that most of the insanely popular viral videos were of cats. Don’t literally go out and film a cat, just realize there’s a lesson here.

If something is good enough for one person to watch over, and over, and over again – and still be entertained, your chances of that subject going viral skyrockets. And remember that entertainment doesn’t necessarily mean funny or good, it can be bad as well. Ask Rebecca Black.

2. Do The Leg Work By Putting Your Medium Out There

If you’re going to spend 3 months on a video and then only upload it to Youtube and that’s where your involvement ends – it’s NOT going to go viral.

You need to make finding and sharing your medium as easy as possible, by canvassing the internet with it. Upload to every video site. Promote it on every blog, micro-blog, social network and social bookmarking site you can. Connect it to a competition.

Ask people to send it to their friends. And please, please make the experience simple. It has to be easy to link to, or be compressed properly if it’s a video! Don’t put roadblocks up that will stunt your viral progress before it’s even happened. Promote your medium as a Twitter trending topic. Plan to succeed.

And finally, learn this one single truth – marketing content, videos, adverts, anything that tries to sell something will almost never go viral. You’re better off creating something relevant and incredibly entertaining, and then slapping your business logo at the beginning of the video.

What elements do you believe are 100% necessary for something to go viral? Let us know!