Drop everything and write a blinkin’ blog post NOW
Please share your important ideas with the marketplace now.
This is the conclusion I have drawn from a series of blogs this week by Darwin change agent, Bronwyn Clee, on her Inspiring Change blog.
In particular, the article that caught my attention and prompted my opening plea to you, dear reader. was one entitled, Was Jesus a guerilla marketer?
In short, the piece was a reflection on my October Business Month keynote presentation from last year, in which I shared the concept of the Two Commandments of Social Media Marketing.
To think that some thoughts shared in October could resonate through the holiday season and bubble up again into a new series of blogs in March is an important insight into the workings of social media marketing and, in particular, content creation.
Here’s what I would like you to do with this information.
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The Wisdom of The Wet – Reality Check for Web2.0 Marketing in the Top End
Top End sunset from my Darwin hotel room, Nov 2011
It is two months today since my October Business Month keynotes in Darwin, and I am wondering how many participants have started the social media marketing journey for their Top End businesses?
I think this is where I am meant to say, ‘if only one person has engaged more thoroughly with their market through social tools, I will be satisfied.’ But that would be a lie!
I believe we ALL have the ability to market through online social means (where appropriate for your operation and your audience, of course) but the past few weeks have taught me a lesson that has clung to my waking hours as tightly as wet t-shirts in the old Discovery Nightclub.
And this lesson was reinforced by a comment made by Darwin counsellor, Omanisa Ross, during a Skype chat this morning.
The lesson: Our persistance in producing content for social media marketing will be tried, time and time again, but acknowledging that helps defuse it.
Let me explain.
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Real artists ship: In memory of Steve Jobs
One of the most useful phrases I have ever read was in Seth Godin’s book, Linchpins.
He tells the story of Steve Jobs at the time that Apple was getting close to launching one of its computers.
Everyone was working around the clock to get it to launch and some engineers wanted to keep delaying to make improvements.
According to the story, Steve Jobs said, “Real artists ship”.
Godin interprets this as a call to action, to having the courage of getting your ideas and your work ‘out there’ in the market place.
It has stuck with me and always reverberates around my head whenever I am tempted to review a blog entry (again) or go back over my presentation (again).
As Godin argues in the book, this saying calls the bluff of our fear that people will ridicule what we present, that it won’t be perfect.
While it is NOT a call to producing junk, it is a life-embracing challenge to getting your ideas and products out in the open where they can inspire and help others, spark new ideas and keep the human adventure of new discovery and experimentation alive.
What project or dream or innovation have you been sitting on? Is it time to push it out the door?
What writing blogs does to you
Steve Davis in the early days of blog writing
Friends, thank you for following my daily updates via The RITE Series blog since August 1.
I had set myself the goal of blogging an article every day for 60 days and today is the last one under that regime.
I will share some of my experiences with you in my Keynote presentation on October 19 and in the resource I must now turn my attention to creating but here are two highlights:
1. My network among Top End business people and thinkers on the topic of social media as a marketing tool has grown dramatically through this time. In having people respond to my posts via the comments section and/or Twitter, has brought me onto the radar for people I might never have met. Likewise, whenever I mentioned people in blogs or interacted with them via Twitter, I got to know and respect some very interesting and passionate people. I won’t name names for that age old reason that I do not want to offend anyone I might overlook (I have always thought that was such a lame excuse but now that I am faced by the prospect of hurting someone through omission, I fully understand the source of that cliché).
2. My stream of blog ideas has grown from what had been a gentle and reliable creek into a gushing, pounding river with Wet Season showers billowing from above as well. I will be making a very strong case now to anyone who wants to blog, to set themselves a target of daily blogging for at least 3-4 weeks. It not only forces new habits but your internal awareness that you have something to write afresh again tomorrow harnesses your brain’s natural gift of looking for patterns in things. I can now hardly breathe without being assaulted by possible blog topics. Even though I have written professionally since 1985, first as a journalist then from 2004 in my role as marketer helping clients find and define their ‘voices’, it has not been until this gruelling 60-day challenge that I have experienced the ‘abundance of angles’ that my brain presents to me for future blog posts. Please try it for yourself and let me know how you fare.
What will happen now?
I have so many blog ideas (even a three part series in my head) that I will continue sharing posts on this site throughout October. It might not be a daily occurrence but I am now more truly addicted to this process than ever before so I wouldn’t be surprised if I keep these thoughts trickling here for those of you who want something else to read after finishing your copy of the NT News each day!
Thanks again for your feedback, discussion and ideas and I look forward to meeting you physically or virtually in October and beyond.
Steve Davis
Should your marketing material be filed in the bin?
This will be the shortest and most direct blog post in The RITE Series because the point I want to make is simple and direct.
It is crucial that we picture, clearly, the person we are writing for before we create content for
- an online article or blog
- a Facebook Page
- a LinkedIn group
- a brochure
- a web page
- any form of marketing communication!
I am starting to see some blogs created that use keywords that are well targeted but the content itself is shallow and useless.
Nobody wins here.
Users will back out of our sites or bin our brochures in two seconds flat, Facebook users will most like ‘UNlike’ our Pages, and we will experience the cold shoulder of the modern consumer.
And in this process, consumers might well be robbing themselves of a great product or excellent customer service.
A quick test
The simplest test I get my clients to perform is to take a step back from some words or work they have created and ask themselves:
If someone had to pay a dollar to read this piece of content, would they feel like that was a good trade?
If your content won’t pass that simple test, perhaps it would be wise to dig a little deep and share a little more of yourself and your expertise.
As David Meerman Scott says in his book: The new rules of marketing and PR – customers will reward us.
The Top End Tuesday wrap up
My daughter reflecting on her Top End experience in April
We are nearing the end of my 60 days of blogging daily in the lead up to my October Business Month keynote on using Social Media the RITE way, on October 19, 2011.
Each Tuesday I highlighted a Social Media or Social Networking application, through the filter of a Top End business.
In case you only caught up with us recently, I thought it might be useful to create the Top End Tuesday digest for you.
Here are the six Top End Tuesday instalments, as they appeared since the first week of August.
They include a range of businesses from car dealers to chiropractors.
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Should the NT News be your blogging guide?
Today’s post is a question.
Throughout The RITE Series, I have been trying to sift through conventional wisdom around the use of Social Media for marketing your business, for angles and insights particularly relevant to Top End business people. I am in the last few weeks of honing those thoughts ahead of my October Business Month Keynote Presentation Web2.0 Technology and your business on October 19.
But today’s Sunday Territorian front page story about a mutant toad, shared on Facebook by Jude McColough, got me wondering about whether or not the, um, quirky cycle of NT News daily headlines is still capturing the spirit of living in the Top End, or whether it has become a caricature of itself.
On one hand, most business people in my NT workshops grimace when the paper is mentioned and the critics on Media Watch always turn to it for a laugh. On the other hand, I believe it is Mr Murdoch’s most resilient pot of gold.
As I guide business people in the use of blogging, I suggest looking at magazines and other popular blogs for ideas about headline writing and structure. In fact, I wrote a blog post on headlines and keywords recently.
But should business bloggers take the NT News lead and produce headlines that alternate between crocs, UFOs, and tragic characters? Continue reading
Headlines – stuff them with meaningful keywords
Making the crocodile toy video
On my way back to Darwin on Sunday, I saw a newspaper headline a few seats ahead of me on the plane that read: Tell Me Why
The story also featured a large photo of a person looking straight into the camera and they were in a pained and reflective pose.
I didn’t get to read the story but I imagine the opening paragraph set the scene and drew the reader into the story.
This ‘generic’ headline worked in the newspaper because questions are powerful things to read (most of us consider answering them, at least for a split second) and the strong picture of the subject of the story was very emotive.
As good as that was, it would have been the most disastrous headline in the history of blogging if you had used it for your online marketing.
Here’s why.
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Top End Tuesday: Darwin chiropractors show how to crank out the blogs without pain
Darwin Chiropractors, Dr Jacob Brady & Dr Leandra Walker
I met Dr Leandra Walker and Dr Jacob Brady at one of the Get Online NT workshops run through the Business Enterprise Centre earlier this year.
They had just started their chiropractic practise, The Chiropractic Place, and had very little by way of marketing presence in this town.
What they did have though was passion and and unbridled make-or-break (probably not the best term to use) attitude towards their venture.
Today, just six months later, they have been able to cut loose from their part time jobs and are now running a very promising practise cultivating a ‘fan base’ of clients who are enjoying their client-centred approach and their zest for living.
How did they do this? It would be glib to just answer that it all came down to WordPress (for running their website) and Blogging (for producing their online marketing content) because those elements are just tools, albeit very good tools.
What I can say though, is that this dynamic duo has produced an almost textbook example of how you can apply sound marketing theory to this new online world and make an impact for little dollar spend.
But let’s hear their side of the story.
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Need blogging inspiration? Ask your priest
I had a divine revelation on the way to work this week.
The traffic stopped me outside a church temporarily and as I glanced at the sign out the front I read:
‘Is Jesus the only way to Heaven? Sunday, 6pm’
A light went on for me.
Sermons, when advertised in advance this way, are like blogs.
And that means that if you’re having trouble getting started blogging for your business or keep up with the demands of content creation, then a chat with a priest might be the first step to marketing salvation.
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