Like most good folks, Bonsai Interactive hates spammers and spamming with a vengeance. So we made a little video just for them.
Enjoy (and hat-tip to Susan Murphy for the post title).
(Cross-post with Bonsai Interactive)
Consider This
If I have to ask you twice to explain what you do, your elevator pitch needs work.
If I give up on your phone tree, your communication options aren’t good enough.
If I Google you and you’re not on the first page, you’re not getting my attention.
If I don’t understand your FAQ’s, your product or service is being lost.
If I get lost on your website, you’re closing the door in my face.
We live in a world of quick questions and faster results. We have a tidal wave of information that no other generation has ever had access to. We are keepers of the keys to every business.
If you make us work when all we want to do is buy, you’ve failed. And we’re not good at giving second chances. Not in these times.
So.
Are you considering this? And what would you add?
Mining for Gold in Blog Comments
Two blog posts caught my eye today. The first was The Art of Blog Commenting by Arik Hanson, and the other was The Time for Location-Based Marketing is Now by Gini Dietrich.
Two different blog posts – Arik’s (as the title suggests) is about blog comments, while Gini’s is about platforms like Foursquare and Gowalla and acts as a rebuttal to a recent Forrester report.
Yet despite being different, they’re both very much tied together by one defining factor – blog comments.
You see, what both blog posts confirmed is something I believe in wholeheartedly – it’s not the blog that offers the most bang for your buck, but the comments that follow once published.
Digital Gold
While a blog starts any conversation, that’s all a good blog should be – a conversation starter.
Think about it – why do you blog (either personally or as a business)? To extend your brand? To promote products and news? To increase your search rankings? All of the above? None? Some? Others?
It doesn’t really matter, since all you’re doing is opening up a conversation.
- Customer to sales.
- Potential client to marketing.
- Job-seeker to new employer.
- Website to Google’s algorithms.
All these and more are simply conversations between two entities – the blog and whatever shape the audience takes.
So if you’re opening up a conversation to connect to your audience, then there’s only one place that happens – the comments section. And that part of your blog is where the digital gold is melted into shape.
Look Beyond the Blogger
One of the things I hear a lot when speaking to new clients about their existing social strategies is the advice to “read bloggers X, Y and Z to learn about your business.”
Good points. Bloggers X, Y and Z are writing some great stuff and there’s no doubt there are useful nuggets to take away.
But the real juice? That’s not necessarily from the bloggers, who often stop at the crucial point of ideas without offering real-world ideas or examples to let you take away and put into action. Maybe that’s just for paying clients…
Which is why I always advise to go beyond the blogger and read more into the comments if you want to find the real gold.
Take Gini’s post about geo-location marketing, for example. She makes some excellent points on why Forrester are off the mark with their report, and uses figures and ideas to show why. But Gini is a marketer – that’s her job (and one that she’s damn good at).
But in the comments, there are even more ideas that show businesses what their customers want. If I’m a marketing or promotions manager at Starbucks, for example, I’d be looking at Rob Reed’s comment and putting that on the agenda at my next brainstorming meeting.
Who knows, I might just find that Rob’s suggestion saves me thousands in focus groups but makes me millions in sales.
That’s just one example – considering there are at least 133 million blogs in the world, think how many other examples there could be.
Content is the Apperitif
What both Arik and Gini’s posts show – and many others like them – is that content (while still great) is no longer the king.
Yes, it’s hugely important, and not only shows your thoughts on a topic, but your expertise to a potential client, employer or customer. And as a marketing platform for your business, a blog is hard to beat.
But the real meat is in the comments. That’s where the creativity can really be let loose, and ideas bounced off others and taken to new heights. There’s no limit to a comments section, but there is a finite amount to what makes a readable blog post.
So think of the blog as the apperitif. A great cocktail to ease you into the main course ahead – the comments.
If you’re a business, think of who you want to have a drink with (your customers), and then get out to the restaurant (blog) they frequent the most. And then listen to what they’re ordering.
Because order filling is what you’re good at, right?
photo credit: damo1977
photo credit: lusobrandane
Blog Design Revamp Part 1
If you’re a regular reader or visitor here, you’ll know that my blog has undergone a bit of a style redesign this weekend.
Out goes the blue and orange feel, and in comes a bolder, fresher look with cleaner lines and a nice mix of red, white and grey. It’s a colour scheme I’ve always liked and forms the design basis behind both Bonsai Interactive and the SRM Group.
The awesome logo and banner (and the mix of the colour scheme) is by the hugely talented Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics over in L.A. Lisa is also doing some more design work for the blog – this is just part one, and is the combination of Lisa’s graphic ideas and me overhauling the old design with this one, thanks to the Headway theme, on Sunday afternoon.
Having seen what Lisa has in store for the second part, I’m looking forward to sharing the final look with you – it’s definitely quite funky! And if you need any WordPress design work, make sure you pop on over to check Lisa and her work out.
What do you think of the new look? Love to hear your feedback!
Note: This blog no longer runs on the Headway framework. Instead, it’s a custom WordPress design by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics.
Picking Your Fights
In business (and life) we have to fight.
Fight for our clients. Fight for our beliefs. Fight for our ideas to be heard and understood why we’re presenting them.
Fight for our value and worth.
Choosing when to fight, though, isn’t easy. Even though there are times when we know we are so right, no matter what we say it’s going to be viewed as wrong.
It takes a lot to walk away at times like these.
You put in a lot of work. Man hours, development hours, project hours. But that’s the work stuff – you expect that. There’s also the personal hours away from those you love.
But you do it, because you’re doing it to make a better life for those you love. That’s why you fight.
Pride comes into it too. You can see why those that are fighting with you are having qualms, but you also have the solutions to those qualms. Or at least you would, if they would let you.
But they don’t.
So now you have to decide, do you fight or do you surrender?
Surrender isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It smooths the water and allows you and your combatant’s ships to sail more easily in the same waters again. And everyone loves plain sailing.
But every sailor knows the next big storm is only one grey cloud away.
So now you’re back to fighting. But how long do you allow a fight to go on before realizing it’s only creating lasting damage? How long before you’re punch-drunk and unable to fight any more? And not just with this opponent, but every single one from now on?
Anyone can fight. Some can fight better than others, and for longer.
The question is, are the victories sweet or bittersweet? Are they even victories at all?
photo credit: Profound Whatever