Blog Tips

Blogging in 2013 : The Year of Crowd Curation?

This is a guest post by Paul Mayze.

The barriers to blogging are now lower than ever. ?At least, that is the theory.

On WordPress and Blogger it takes minutes, if not seconds, to set up your blog. On Tumblr, adding content is child?s play (and if in doubt you can repost something from someone else).

Of course, the reality is that blogging is harder than ever. Assuming your intention is to generate a readership for your blog, setting up a blog isn?t the problem. ?The problem is keeping it up.

But a new breed of content publishing and curation tools is focused on tackling this issue head on.

5 Blogs to Subscribe To in 2013

As we come to the year end, I traditionally wind down by highlighting people and news to keep an eye on in the year to come.

This year is no different, (yeah, I?m predictable that way). Previously, I shared 5 bloggers for you to watch in 2013 – today, and in no particular order, here are 5 blogs you really should subscribe to in 2013.

1. The Future Buzz

I’ve been a fan of The Future Buzz for a long time. The analysis of social media and where it belongs in the marketing mix has always been great brain fodder. With Adam’s recent appointment to Google, the blog is taking a much deeper look at data and analytics and where that fits in the real-time web. Required reading for all marketers and business folks in general.

Subscribe to The Future Buzz here.

2. The Realtime Report

Social media and the digital space move pretty fast, and it can be hard to keep up without a good resource. Thankfully, The Realtime Report offers that resource. Covering social media, mobile and the real time web, The Realtime Report shares the latest trends, statistics, buzz and more on today’s movers and shakers. Well worth your time if you have any interest in social media.

Subscribe to The Realtime Report here.

3. SEOmoz

Sure, social media is redefining search as we know it – Google and their use of Google+ as the hub that binds social and search together is proof of that. However, SEO still plays a key role in being found online, and the guys at SEOmoz are just the people to help guide you in mixing social search and SEO perfectly. Their Whiteboard Friday sections are essential reading, as is the rest of their blog.

Subscribe to SEOmoz here.

4. tickrblog

Sometimes you want a really easy read, one that you can skim and be done with in a minute or so. Other times, you want solid data, facts, in-depth information and more – the tickrblog provides that. Dissecting industry expert analysis and taking social media to where it really needs to be for businesses – lead generation and sales success – the tickrblog isn’t easy reading, but it is damn fine reading.

Subscribe to the tickrblog here.

5. AGBeat

The problem with many business blogs that purport to be for businesses of all sizes is that very often they’re not. Instead, they simply cater to organizations and enterprises that can afford the solutions on display. Thankfully, AGBeat isn’t one of these blogs. Offering tips, advice and reviews for all business, but in particular the small-to-medium business owner space, it’s a great read covering a multitude of news and industries.

Subscribe to AGBeat here.

So there you have it ? 5 blogs that keep me thinking, and ones that?ll do the same for you. Next up I?ll be looking at 5 influence platforms for you to watch in 2013, so I hope you can join me then.

In the meantime, what blogs do you think we should be reading in 2013? The comments are yours.

Why You Need a Responsive Blog Design Instead of a Mobile-Friendly One

When you read a blog, what’s your preferred method – desktop browser or mobile (say, smartphone or tablet)?

According to the analytics for this blog, my mobile browsing traffic accounts for just over 6,000 visits per month (or around 10% of my traffic), and they tend to stay on the site longer than desktop visitors.

So it makes sense for me to ensure these visitors are looked after. Because I run on WordPress, my blog is automatically mobile-friendly (meaning visitors on mobile browsers will get a nice replication of my design on their phones).

I could also install a plugin like WPtouch Pro, to optimize the mobile experience even more. But I’m not a fan of either of these approaches – instead, I much prefer a responsive design for mobile visitors. Here’s why.

Blogging as Part of Your Marketing Strategy

Last week, the good folks over at Social Media Breakfast Waterloo were kind enough to invite me over to speak to their members.

The topic was crowd-sourced, and the chosen talk was on how blogging could be used as part of your marketing strategy. Since the audience was made up of every business size, from solo entrepreneurs to SMB owners and C-suite executives, it was a great topic to be talking about.

You can view my presentation below, but i just wanted to highlight the four key points that you can take away for your own blog and marketing combination.

1. Research

One of the most important things you can do before you start a business blog is research whether your customers and audience actually want one. It’s all well and good saying, “Well, our competition has a blog – we should too!”. But that’s just setting yourself up for failure.

Look at your customer base; are they the kind that read blogs? Are they mobile-led (which would suggest a blog-friendly audience)? Are they computer-literate?

A slaughterhouse in Moldova is probably not going to need a blog; a hospitality industry business probably should have one. Ask your customers if they’d be interested in a blog – a questionnaire, an email, when they’re in your store, etc.

Having a ready audience will immediately increase your chances of having a decent corporate blog.

2. Strategy

Just as important as the research angle is the strategy one. If you launch a business blog and you don’t have defined goals with it, you’re just wasting valuable time and resources in maintaining it.

Will it be for lead generation? Will it be to promote your business’ thought leadership? Is it to handle service questions, or give the latest news on product or company updates? Is it to get to know your customers better and what makes them tick?

Have a solid strategy in place on what you want to achieve, and how you wish to achieve it. Then set timelines in place to measure how you’re doing, and adapt accordingly.

You wouldn’t go into business without a clear goal and plan – why would you do anything different with another angle of your business?

3. Consistency

If there’s one thing that blog readers hate, it’s inconsistency. This can be across multiple areas – publishing posts, comment systems (yes, I’m guilty of this one!), voice, editorial, writers and more.

And there’s a simple reason for this – there are currently between 180 and 200 million blogs out there, and reader interest is becoming shorter and shorter as publications vie for eyeballs. So if you’re confusing your reader with ever-changing positions on your blog, they’ll more often than not decide it’s not worth hanging around.

If you want to keep your readers and grow your blog, be consistent.

If you’re going to post once a week, make it the same day and the same time of day. If you’re going to post 2-3 times a week, keep it the same days.
If you’re going to be primarily a text blog, remain that way. If you’re going to be a video-led blog, be that blog. You can mix things up now and again, but keep the prime focus the one you set up yourself up as.
Keep the tone consistent. if you’re going to be a serious blog, remain in a serious tone. If you’re looking to show the fun side of your business, highlight that with pictures and a lighter tone.

If you keep to the goals you set out with, and the way you set out reaching them, it’ll cause less confusion and encourage readers to stay with you.

4. Measurement

One of my biggest bugbears is when I speak with business owners and ask them about analytics and measurement, and how they’re tracking their success based on their goals, and they reply with a blank stare and an, “Uh….” soundbite.

If you’re not tracking your activity, how do you expect to know if you’re succeeding; where you’re succeeding; where you need to adapt and more?

The best of it is, you can track all this stuff for free (with the exception of cost of man hours to do so).

Use Google Analytics or Woopra to track your web visits, as well as where the traffic is coming from, what your visitors are doing while on site, where they’re going afterwards, and much more. See which content works, which doesn’t, and amend your approach accordingly.
Track social media success with tools like Jugnoo (I’m biased, but we do track pretty well!), Most Shared Posts, or social campaigns in your analytics solution(s). By knowing what content resonates, and where, you can be far more strategic on your approach to both your blog and that platform.
If you’re selling products from your business blog, use something like WooCommerce and Improvely. This can identify the source of the purchase, the referral, the costs involved and much more.

You don’t have to run a bells and whistles measurement solution – but for the love of all things common sense, please do have at least some way to track what you’re doing!

As I mentioned, these are the four key areas for any business blog to really concentrate on and get right. There are more, which the presentation looks at. But as a starting point, they should be the ones you answer if you want your business blog to succeed.

The rest is up to you.

On Listening to Those That Make Your Blog What It Is

A couple of weeks back, I sent an email out to my subscribers asking about blog comment systems.

The main gist of the question was centered around which option readers preferred – the WordPress native system, or third-party options like Livefyre and Disqus.

The reasoning was simple – while I might provide the original content, I firmly believe that the real magic of a blog post comes in the comments afterward. It’s where new ideas can be formed; feedback given; and new friendships and relationships forged.

Simply put, content may be king but community is the whole royal courtyard.

The results and feedback from that email showed that, while WordPress native was the simplest option, people did prefer the more social aspects of Livefyre and Disqus.

Out of these two, the majority of votes went to Disqus. Reasons included:

The ability to answer directly from your email notification
Better sign-in experience on mobile browsers
The community aspect of knowing what your commenters were saying elsewhere and the ability to join that conversation
A better way to track all your comments elsewhere

While some answers preferred Livefyre for its ability to integrate social conversations into the comments, there were also concerns re. mobile reading, and a more cliquey feel to Livefyre communities (though personally I would say that’s more down to the blogger and their interactions versus the system itself).

With that feedback, it was clear that – despite my love of Livefyre – readers preferred the approach to comments Disqus takes. Hence the reason it’s back on the blog after a trial run of the new version earlier this year.

Now, you could say that it’s my blog and I can run whatever options I want on here. And that’s true – but it’s also missing the point.

A blog without a community is simply a news channel. A community without interaction is simply a dead zone waiting to go somewhere else. A dead zone is the path to oblivion for a blog.

This blog has always been about your voice and interaction too – you bring different points of view and great ideas all the time. Why would I want to limit that?

So, thanks for being here and thanks for the feedback on how you wish to be here – here’s to continued conversations.

Update 19 March 2013: After experiencing some issues with Disqus – slow load time (particularly on mobile browsers), comments disappearing and filters not working properly – I’ve reinstalled Livefyre, with its new version 4.0.