content creation | She Owns It

Tools to Help You Find Content That Will Engage Your Readers by @donnaamos

December 21, 2018 by Donna Amos 1 Comment

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor

Successful content marketing involves producing quality content that your readers want to read. If the most well-written piece you could possibly produce doesn’t resonate with your audience, it’s useless. While simply writing on topics relevant to your business niche seems adequate, it is really like shooting in the dark. You need to be writing on topics that relate to your business, but they must also be topics that your audience currently finds interesting.

To discover this, you must listen to your audience and see what interests them at the present time. What current topic is all the rage? What current event relating to your business or industry is causing a stir? Sometimes called news hijacking, this practice of following trending news is a great way to cash in on trending topics to attract readers and connections.

What I am NOT advocating is simply writing what everyone else is writing. Your content must still be fresh, original, and useful to your readers. That doesn’t come from parroting the same lines as everyone else. But you can discover trending or popular topics and write about them from your viewpoint, or demonstrate how your business or product can impact the conversation.

There are some great tools available that can make harvesting topics much easier for you. I’ll briefly highlight each one and provide some simple suggestions for how to use them effectively.

Solopreneur Connect

Solopreneur Connect is a great social media listening tool. It can help you listen to conversations that relate to your business or industry niche. You can read conversations on what your target audience needs and their problems. Solopreneur Connect can show you what interests your audience by allowing you to search for relevant keywords in conversations on different social media platforms.

To set up Hootsuite for listening to conversations:

Sign in to your Solopreneur Connect account.
Click on ‘search.’ You will see an option to setup – keyword search.
Click on ‘Keywords’ and type as many keywords as you want to use. Type in one at a time and click on add after each.
You can then add a location if you want to do so.

Solopreneur Connect’s comprehensive social listening tools empower marketers to execute brand monitoring and analyze social data for marketing insights. Gather introspective, contextual insights to topics, hashtags and influencers relative to your mentions to find new and incremental marketing opportunities.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is another tool that allows you to know what your audience is currently sharing. For example, I typed “writing” into the tool. The free version only allows users to see what is most popular by shares over the past year. The result was a piece about whether or not to use only one space after sentences from the Washington Post. Since May 2018 it has had 349.9k shares across all platforms. Pretty popular.

The paid membership allows for much more versatility, including what is currently being shared about your chosen keywords, even on each social media platform. It would be worth the cost, considering the other features included, to use this one tool to analyze what is currently being discussed in your industry niche.

Google Alerts

Another tool you can use is the Google alert tool. It is very useful. You can set alerts for your keywords and when such keywords come up, you will receive notifications in your email inbox.

For example, if you are in the writing niche and you want to know what is trending, you can create an alert for it using Google alert like this:

Type http://www.google.com/alerts into your browser
Log in with your Google account
Enter the keywords you want to monitor separated by commas
Click on options
Select how often you want to receive the alert. (choosing “as it happens” keeps you constantly updated)
Select the sources i.e. news, video, blog, etc. (selecting automatic covers all the sources)
Select the language, choose the region, and choose the number of results
Select the email where your alerts will be delivered
Click on create

Pretty soon, you will start receiving alerts in your inbox.

Answer the Public

With Answer the Public you enter the keyword you are interested in and it will return the phrases that actual users are typing into Google and Bing. The how, what, where, when, can, are, etc. If you know exactly what is being searched for you can provide the solutions that are being searched for. It’s perhaps one of the best but most underutilized sources of research for content ideas. Until now…

Now that you have some great tools to help, you can harvest topics and set priorities for writing content that resonates with your audience. This content will drive users to your site, and to your business.

What other audience listening tools do you like to use? Share them in the comments below.

Donna Amos

Donna Amos is passionate about helping Solopreneurs grow their business using everything digital and publishing. She has 30 years experience in sales and marketing for small business. She believes the best gift you can give another is a word of encouragement.

https://www.solopreneursllc.com/

Why You Should be Optimizing Content for Mobile Users by @DrRKayGreen

May 2, 2018 by Kay Green 1 Comment

by Dr. R. Kay Green | Featured Contributor

Statistics show that mobile browsing is becoming increasingly common. This means that optimizing your content for mobile is an important part of keeping an engaged and active readership.

The look and layout of your content is probably more important than you realize. Studies have shown that people judge your website in just one-twentieth of a second. The only thing a person can judge in that length of time is whether or not the site and content are aesthetically pleasing.

Often, content that is not optimized for mobile is not aesthetically pleasing. The images are too large or too small, and the font is often not aligned correctly. In a worst-case scenario, the text is hidden or entirely unreadable.

Online users are impatient. If they decide that the content on your site is difficult to access for whatever reason, they will simply move on to another site. If you want to keep readers on your site for any length of time, you need to optimize your content for mobile. Readability and ease of access is key, but you also need to consider loading time.

But this is not the only reason that optimizing content for mobile is so important. Mobile readers simply interact with sites differently than desktop users. Due to the different screen size and controls, they have different needs, and trying to force the same controls for both will often lead to decreased user experience.

Now, many platforms do come with “responsive” designs. But these are often not enough. Taking the time to create a mobile design separate from your desktop design will not only improve your user experience — it will also improve your SEO ranking.

So, perhaps you have taken steps to make sure that your site is optimized for mobile. Your website loads quickly, your homepage looks great, and your links are all present and accounted for. Are you finished?

The answer, surprisingly, is no.

If you decide to optimize for mobile, it needs to be done entirely. This means making sure that your pages are all mobile-friendly as well. This may mean creating entirely different pages for your mobile users to scroll through. Remember, images, columns, or other elements that look great on desktop wind up looking bulky or awkward on mobile.

Before launching your site, take a moment and run through all of your pages on your mobile device. Where do things look strange or unwieldy? These are the pages you should focus on optimizing.

And once you finish optimizing your website content for mobile, you should not stop there. Optimizing social media content for mobile also ensures that more people will be able to interact with what you are putting out.

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Dr. R. Kay Green – Marketing Expert from RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. from Atlanta, GA.

Dr. R. Kay Green is the CEO/President of RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. With over 190,000+ Twitter followers, 35,000+ Facebook Likes, and the Top 1% LinkedIn profile designation, Dr. Kay, a self-motivated trailblazer, is the Quintessential “New-Age” Professional Woman, and PhD Marketing Pro. She earned a Doctorate of Business Administration in Marketing, and has completed PhD coursework in Leadership and Organization Change. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Management, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, and an Associate of Arts in Marketing Management.

She is affiliated with several prestigious universities and has instructed over 350 courses online. A popular speaker on Marketing and Business topics, Dr. Green is currently featured on Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, Black News, The Network Journal, Business Review USA, Digital Journal, College View, Business New Hampshire Magazine, Bay State Banner, Reader’s Circle, North Dallas Gazette, Harlem News, Top News Today, One News Page, NE Informer, Women in Business PR News, Consumer News Today, Women PR News, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Daily Herald, The Miami Herald, and Book News Articles.

Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn

Kay Green

http://www.drkaygreen.com

Throw Content Calendars Out by @tenaciousAngie

April 13, 2016 by Angie Weber 5 Comments

by Angie Weber | Featured Contributor

You have probably heard a million times: a content calendar will be the answer to all of your writing prayers. In fact, you’ve probably heard it from a lot of people just like me- you know the ones that are obsessed with telling you to give your clients really great stuff that keeps them coming back for more.

But here I sit, struggling with the question of, “Do they really work?”

Lately, I have been having some major writer’s block. Rather then getting words down, my mind is jumping from one topic to the next.

”What should I write?!”

It’s not that I don’t have a content calendar written out- I do! I’ve gone through and written down exactly what I want to focus on each week for months; but once it comes time to follow the plan, my mind goes blank.

Maybe it’s my rebellious nature (ha) that makes me want to break free of the designated topic.

One thing I’ve learned over the years to stay consistent with blogging is the easiest posts to write are the ones that come naturally. And between juggling work + twins, well, I don’t ever seem to be short of stories to share. I try to take in as much as I can from any situation so I can find some nugget of a lesson. So when there is something I really want to tell you, the content calendar goes out the window. #ByeByeBye

Now, I know you may be disagreeing with me. In fact, I’m banking on the fact that there are a few of you yelling at your screen right now.

So, am I the only one feeling this way?

I have a funny feeling I’m not, so here are some tips on how to write authentic content that will speak right to your perfect clients… even when you don’t want to follow a content calendar.

Write Like You Talk

When one of my clients came and we encouraged her to write a blog, she looked horrified. She told us there’s nothing that drains her more than sitting behind a computer and writing. She was a warm bubbly person, but when she wrote, it sounded cold and stale. I see this happen all the time. We get so worried about these rules on how we are suppose to write + forget to add in what people really care about- our personality. So write like you talk; seriously, even if that means recording your blog while you talk + then typing it out later. Your people are going to love the stuff you are giving them because they are drawn in by you (not punctuation).

Keep Your Perfect Client In Mind

Ever heard the saying “When you try help everyone, you help no one”? It’s so true. So let’s stop trying to please everyone and keep that perfect client in mind when writing content. What words would he/she be triggered by? What kind of stories would they connection with? The more you know about your perfect client, the better your writing will be. And, yes, not everyone is going to like your writing or connect with it. They may even criticize it. The good news: it’s okay! You aren’t writing to them anyways.

Tell Stories, Not Lists

How many times have you pinned something like “101 Ways to Recycle Things Around Your House”? You definitely want to read that… at some point. But then ‘some point’ turns into never. Yet, we see all these listicles used again and again. Now, before you get too upset, I’m not trying to say that listicles don’t hold a lot of great information. Heck, how else would I know what the top 20 children stars of the 90’s look like now? However, we need to think about the way that people are engaging. We have so much information thrown at us day after day, we need to adapt to how people are going to interact. So what if we took it a step further and told a story vs just making a list? I promise, this will attract your perfect client + actually create a relationship with them. Here’s my challenge: take out a piece of paper and jot down a few stories that you could refer back to in your writing.

Okay, so we took a little spin off of the traditional content calendar with creating a list of your stories. Now, you have stuff in your writing queue that you can use, but it’s not holding you to a specific timeline. So for those of you thinking, “You’re just crazy, Angie! Content calendars are all the rage,” let’s call it a compromise and meet in the middle. What do you say?

Still holding on to that content calendar like an autographed picture from your favorite boy band? Awesome, let me hear it – the good, the bad, and the ugly! Tell me your stance on content calendars.

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After time spent searching for the perfect job and having no luck, Angie Weber was introduced to tena.cious. Not only did she find her passion for small business, she also discovered one very important thing about herself- she is a true intrapreneur. (You know, those people who act like entrepreneurs, but don’t have as much risk in the game?)

While she co-runs tena.cious and helps clients showcase their personalties online, she also spreads awareness about intrapreneurs- the good, the bad, and the ~~ugly~~ awesomeness. If you want to get an inside look on intrapreneurs, check out here podcast, The Intrapreneur Life.

Angie Weber

Minding the Mobile Inbox: 10 Tips to Get the Attention Your Email Deserves by @BBorowicz

November 13, 2015 by Brittney Borowicz 4 Comments

by Brittney Borowicz | Featured Contributor

Why email? This question haunts many marketers’ dreams. In the age of spam filters, Gmail’s “Promotions” tab and one-click unsubscribe buttons, it seems like email is going by the wayside. Despite the new and emerging hoops that marketers have to jump through just to get their message to their audiences’ inboxes, email remains the second largest acquisition channel behind organic search.

In fact, 79% of email recipients use their smartphone for reading email… a higher percentage than those who use it for making calls. In addition, 91% of consumers check their email at lease once per day on their smartphone, making it the most-used functionality on these devices. Knowing this, it’s time for marketers to change their thinking of the present day as the “Age of Spam Filters” to thinking of it as the “Era of the Email Device.”

Marketers must adopt a “mobile-first” mentality, which means it’s time to start minding the mobile inbox. In order to get the attention your email deserves, take these 10 tips to make your emails more mobile-friendly.

Technical Details

Make your emails responsive. Click-to-open rates are 40% higher for brands that send exclusively responsive emails versus brands that send only non-responsive.
Use a “friendly” sender name. Try using the name of someone in your company. Using “Customer Service” or “Info” is a turn-off for consumers but a definite turn-on for an inbox’s spam filter to kick in.
Set your images to the right. In case your email is not responsive (Tsk. Tsk. See number tip #1.), this allows your reader to see your important text first rather than making them scroll for it. Mobile users don’t like scrolling.
Have your main calls-to-action visible at the top of the email. This tip is similar to the last… mobile users just don’t like to scroll. This entices them to act when they first open your email!
Make everything clickable. Images, section headlines, calls-to-action… you name it! A mobile reader is more likely to click to get more information than try to find it in your email.

Subject Lines

Keep your subject line short. Remember, a consumer’s inbox on their phone is much smaller than on their computer. Keep your subject line between four and seven words max. (From personal experience, this is hard to do at first. Don’t think you can do it? Read the next tip.)
Ditch the “If you can’t see this, click here” preview text. Instead, use this area as an extension of your subject line to deliver your “hook.”
Use the people-to-people rule. Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened.
Give your subject lines urgency. Include a deadline or other featured date so that your readers know they need to act fast!
Give your subject lines some extra energy! Subject lines that end in exclamation marks have higher open rates than those that don’t.

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Brittney Borowicz is an integrated marketing professional with a strong communications background specializing in journalism, public relations and social media. Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Brittney has spent the past few years working with entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Chicagoland area to enhance their marketing and social media efforts.

Prior to her current role as the Marketing Manager for an embedded networking company, Brittney realized her affinity for all things media and marketing while working in radio and television and as a professional presenter. Later, she began working at a couple of small marketing agencies in Chicago as a Public Relations and Sales Director and Account Manager, which required her to be well-versed in coordinating specialized public and media relations strategies, creative marketing initiatives and cohesive sales process implementations.

As a strong believer in intimate consumer/brand involvement, Brittney helps her clients create content that engages and educates brand audiences while establishing each individual or company as a thought leader in their industry.

Twitter | LinkedIn | Personal Website

Brittney Borowicz

Brittney Borowicz is an integrated marketing professional with a strong communications background specializing in journalism, public relations and social media. Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Brittney has spent the past few years working with entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Chicagoland area to enhance their marketing and social media efforts.

http://www.brittneyborowicz.com

5 Ways to Work Thought Leadership into your Content Marketing Strategy by @BBorowicz

August 25, 2015 by Brittney Borowicz 1 Comment

by Brittney Borowicz | Featured Contributor

The intent of thought leadership is to become a trusted source of information for your audience so that they view you and your company as an authority in your industry. Not only does thought leadership position you and your company as the go-to for specific information in your industry, but it also helps to build trust with your audience in both you and your products/services. It is therefore one of the most (if not, the most) important element of your content marketing strategy.

Here are five simple and effective ways to work thought leadership into your content marketing strategy.

1. Be Specific

When I first introduce the concept of “thought leadership” to a client or company, they often run into the problem of trying to tackle a very broad topic. Although you want your audience to know you have a wealth of knowledge, broad topics such as customer service, technology, marketing, etc. are very crowded and make it hard to stand out in your industry.

Breaking that broad topic down into one, two, or ever three smaller topics is a much more effective method of working thought leadership into your content marketing strategy. To do this, you must know and understand your customer. What is valuable to them? What matters to them? What are their pain points? Once you know these things about your audience and can prioritize them, you can create content on specific topics that will build their trust in you as well as make you an authority in your industry.

2. Stand Out from the Crowd

It’s one thing to be able to pick a few topics that will really resonate with your audience. It is another thing to be able to be unique and stand out from all of the other people and companies who are talking about the same topics.

For each topic you choose to focus on, find your own unique angle. What are others saying about this topic? Don’t repeat what everyone else is saying. Find some part of that topic that hasn’t been talked about yet and don’t be afraid to disagree with everyone else as long as you have something valuable to say. Some things to think about are what makes you different and what is something that only your company can say? Maybe your company offers something in your product/service that nobody else does that can help alleviate some of your customers’ pain points or maybe you have some statistics that nobody else can share that will bring more insight to your topic.

3. Thought Leadership is a Team Sport

Being a thought leader doesn’t have to be an individual effort and in fact, having a team of supporting players can bring even more success to you and your business. The more people that can support your position on a topic, the stronger your position becomes.

The best people to have on your team are those who have a grasp of what your stance is on a specific topic and then can effectively communicate it. Start by getting the CEO and executives in your company involved. Make sure you all have a consistent message when writing about a specific topic or speaking about it at conferences. Next, make sure your marketing team is putting the word out there about your areas of expertise. Finally, get the rest of your company involved in that messaging! Start by having employees share your content and then have them create content of their own that supports your stance. Another route to consider is outsourcing some of your content. As with your other teammates, be careful with this and make sure any outsourced content that is being created supports your position.

4. Variety is the Spice of Life

If you are ONLY blogging, you are doing content marketing wrong. Mix things up! From the type of content to distribution channels, thought leadership knows no bounds.

All people digest information differently. Some people just need text, while others are more visual or need an auditory element to truly understand your information. Obviously, blogging is one of the most well-known types of content out there. Some other types of content that thought leaders should invest their time in include social media, infographics, public speaking, videos and more. While your company’s blog may be a great start to get your content distributed, don’t be afraid to venture out into conducting webinars, writing ebooks, or even writing guest posts for OTHER peoples’ blogs.

5. Connect with Other Thought Leaders in Your Industry

Engaging with other thought leaders in your industry and building a relationship with them is mutually beneficial. This goes back to the point about thought leadership being a team sport. Having someone else in your industry supporting your stance further builds trust with your audience. In addition, when they share your information, it is being disseminated to a different audience and platform than the one you already have established. Work together with these thought leaders to exchange information and ideas, share each other’s thoughts with your audiences, and even contribute to each other’s content!

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Twitter | LinkedIn | Personal Website

Brittney Borowicz

http://www.brittneyborowicz.com

3 Reasons Why You Are Never Too Big to Say “No” by @BBorowicz

February 16, 2015 by Brittney Borowicz 2 Comments

by Brittney Borowicz | Featured Contributor

Working in marketing and public relations has introduced me to many people. These people have operated different businesses, worked in different industries and had different personalities.

Despite all their initial differences, these people all had one thing in common: As soon as they hired me they asked, “so, how are you going to get me on *insert major news network/website here*?”

Valid question.

I am a huge proponent of establishing each of my clients as a thought-leader in their industry. To do this, I start by helping each client create cohesive and educational content that engages their audiences. Upon explaining this to clients, I find that many of them have something else in common: they want to be viewed as a thought-leader and featured in these major media sources but don’t want to do the work to get there.

Many times their reasoning lies in not having the time or bandwidth to create content. Other times, their reasoning lies in the mentality that they are too good, or even the best, and they shouldn’t have to start small just to get big.

While some people are lucky and thrust immediately into the spotlight, it very rarely happens that way. So for those of you who have not quite had your 15-minutes of fame yet, and even for those of you who have, here are 3 reasons you are never too big to say “no” to those smaller media opportunities:

“Started from the Bottom Now I’m Here” – You might know this lyric from Drake… And it may seem funny to you that I am quoting Drake in this blog post. Trust me, I have a reason. Many times, the people you see on Conan or the Today Show were not just put there for no reason. The people you see on TV or in articles online typically started their career in a much smaller way… at the bottom, let’s say. For example, Gary Vaynerchuk, marketing expert, started his career by writing blog posts that had only 6 readers and by recording video interviews that only had 19 viewers. Over time, Gary gained a following and as his influence grew, so did his audiences. Because Gary never said “no” to these small audiences, he was able to get his name out there to the people who mattered and to the people who would eventually feature him in major media outlets.
Depth vs. Width – Another important aspect of never saying “no” involves going deeper with your audience versus wider. This means that rather than speaking to thousands of people who may or may not care about what you have to say, take the time to nurture the relationship you have with your current community. As with all marketing, building trust and likability with your followers largely lies in fostering that partnership you have with them. The best way to do this is by strongly focusing on them and their needs rather than on the people who weren’t engaging with you in the first place. Understand that even though this is a smaller audience, they will hang on to your every word because you already have their like and trust and those are the people you want to give your all to. Opportunities with big networks may only come once in awhile, but you will always have your community to support you.
Having Humility – Let me repeat part of the title of this blog post: You are never too big to say “no.” You may have already done thousands of videos to less than 100 people or written guest blog posts to audiences of 6, but there is always value in doing more. You may have already made a name for yourself, but that doesn’t mean somebody won’t find new information in what you have to say. Each small opportunity has the potential to lead to a greater one… whether it is with a bigger audience or even a business transaction that you didn’t expect.

So, even when it seems like a ten minute interview won’t be worth it or a guest post to a less-traveled blog won’t make a difference, think again. Take those opportunities to nurture the relationship you have with your advocates and use them to perfect your message to future, larger audiences.

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Twitter – LinkedIn – Personal Website

Brittney Borowicz

http://www.brittneyborowicz.com

Marketing Challenge: Finding a Balance Between Being Present and Being Useful by @BBorowicz

January 16, 2015 by Brittney Borowicz Leave a Comment

by Brittney Borowicz | Featured Contributor

As the popularity of social media continues to grow with both customers and salespeople, companies are realizing the importance of being socially present. This presence allows customers to see your company, know your company and ultimately think of your company when they need your product or service. But marketers aren’t just staying present on social media. A true integrated marketing campaign utilizes social media as well as blogs, email blasts, white papers and so on.

As companies strive for this constant presence to their audience, they seem to be forgetting one thing: being useful.

Everyone agrees that spammy, overly frequent emails are the worst, but what is worse than the worst? Spammy, overly frequent emails that provide no value to me, the consumer. I mean, come on! At least tell me how your product/service is going to help solve my problem! Some annoying runner-ups to spammy, overly frequent emails include boring blog posts for the sake of having multiple blog posts per day and the hourly social media update using some meme that was brutally misused.

In order for a company or brand to truly market effectively to their consumers, they must provide value in their content. In other words, companies must first start thinking, “will our customers and potential customers find this content to be useful?”

Publishing valuable content does great things for the relationship between your company and your consumers and potential consumers. People want to do business with people they like and trust. Providing reliable, useful information builds trust with your audience by establishing your company as a credible thought leader that wants to solve their customer’s problem(s). Remember, the customer should always come first — not just in sales, but in marketing as well.

So what are some ways to be present and useful but not be annoying?

Utilize your social media accounts to answer questions, engage with your audience and post helpful tips, tools and articles… and don’t be afraid to have fun with this!
Respond to reviews – both positive and negative. A “thanks” or even an “I’m sorry this happened but here’s how I am going to fix it for the future” goes a long way to show customers that you care.
Write blogs and white papers about topics your customers are actually interested about. If you’re not sure, try looking at the top ten questions your company gets asked about your products/services/industry.
Email consumers and potential consumers ONLY when you have valuable information to share. This may be the blogs or white papers you have written above or maybe updates or news about your products and services.
Don’t just stick to text. Experiment with sharing your content in infographics and videos. Visuals can often tell a story much better than just text can.

These are only a few examples, but by all means stay present! It’s important. The challenge is to find that balance between being present and being useful to your consumers. Unfortunately, there is no cookie-cutter answer to where that balance lies among different industries and audiences. Marketers must test types of content and frequency of publishing to find what is most effective for their company. Make sure your customers and potential customers know you are present… but don’t be THAT brand that gets sent to the spam folder because you are annoying… you won’t be seen there.

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Twitter – LinkedIn – Personal Website

Brittney Borowicz

http://www.brittneyborowicz.com

The 3Ns of Blog Content Creation by @weblogbetter

August 22, 2013 by Kiesha Easley 2 Comments

by Kiesha Easley | Featured Contributor

It’s easy to keep a blog flowing with content if you understand the purpose that each post should serve for its readers. There are three goals that a blog should aim for to ensure its readers are getting what they came for. Regardless of niche, a blog should inform, inspire and/or entertain its audience (you guessed it – these are the three Ns).

Every blog may not be suitable to do all three, but whenever possible, it’s important to produce articles that serve each purpose. I’m not saying that you need to do all of that in one article, but to simply make sure that the various articles you do publish actually accomplishes one of those goals.

As you’re developing your editorial calendar for what you will publish, insure that you have at least one article that:

Informs

People are always looking for information. The types of articles that could serve this purpose are those that provide valuable information or that share knowledge with readers. It could be relevant news that your readers should know about, but it doesn’t always have to be news.

It could be a tutorial or a How-To article; an infographic or a video – anything that presents information that might affect your audience, that answers questions or helps readers solve their problems.

Inspires

People are NOT always directly looking to be inspired or motivated, but if you can write an article that not only informs them, but inspires them to do something about what they found, then your blog will have a greater impact on its readers. This is the kind of blog that can give readers the boost they need to reach their goals and achieve success.

Content that inspires does not need to be full of inspirational quotes or pictures, but simply communicates in such a way that it motivates people to action. The types of articles that could serve this purpose would be those that empower its readers with the information they need and action steps that show them what to do with the information they’ve just received.

Entertains

Let’s face it, sometimes people just want to be entertained. They want to take a break from reality and just have a laugh or experience something different. Don’t be afraid to use storytelling as a strategy to present valuable information. Case studies can be entertaining as well as informational. But you could just share a funny story, video or photographs with your audience to entertain them – it doesn’t have to be that complicated.

A blog serves all of the 3Ns is one that its readers will eagerly visit often and share across social networks. Strive to find a way to inform, inspire and entertain your readers no matter which niche you’ve chosen and you’ll find that your blog will stand out from the crowd.

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Kiesha Easley, Online strategy and Blogging expert from WeBlogBetter.com, South Carolina.

Kiesha Easley is a writer, instructor and blog consultant. Her blog, WeBlogBetter.com provides blogging, writing, social media and other great tips for improving a blog. Kiesha’s articles have been published on Problogger, DIYThemes, Social Mouths, and in Midlands Live Magazine. Her most recent blogging guide, 10 Week Gameplan for a Top 100k Blog, has helped many bloggers build successful blogs from scratch.

In addition to teaching others how to blog, Kiesha is also a college instructor who teaches students how to write for mass media.

When she is not writing, teaching or working on freelance projects, she loves ballroom dancing, watching movies (her favorite: The Pursuit of Happyness), spending time at the beach with family and playing The Sims 3 when she can steal some very rare free time.

Feel free to send her your questions about blogging and content marketing. Kiesha loves helping and connecting with others, so connect with her:

Twitter: @weblogbetter

Facebook

Google+

Email: kiesha@weblogbetter.com

Kiesha Easley

http://weblogbetter.com/

How to be a content diva by @JenKaneCo

May 29, 2013 by Guest Post 3 Comments

by Jennifer Kane | Featured Contributor

A diva knows that it’s not enough just to sing a song. You need to sell a song — transform it, work it, glue it to the back of your open-mouthed audience’s brain.

Creating good content to market or sell your business is no different.

It’s noisy out there – both online and off. You can’t just push out nice, safe information and education and hope someone notices you.

You need to take your brand over the top and be amazing, irrepressible and powerful.

You need to be a content diva.

Now, to paraphrase the immortal words of Sweet Brown, you may be thinking, “Be a Content Diva? Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

Oh, but you do, my friend.

Being a content diva isn’t about doing more work, it’s about bringing a different attitude — a diva attitude — to the work you already do.

1. Divas make a statement.

A true diva makes an impact because she tries harder, aims higher and reaches farther. She always takes the gamble, even when the gamble means she might lose.

Try to emulate that moxie in your content.

Anyone can barf out a blog post on “the top five reasons why blah de blah is super important to your business.”

You can do better.

• Shake up topics like a snow globe and find a new perspective to discuss.

• Peer deep within the cracks in your industry and tell us what you find there.

• Ask the provocative questions your competitors are too afraid to ask.

2. Divas work it.

Divas are all about verbs — bringing a sense of action, life and energy to everything they say and do.

You don’t describe a diva by saying she “sings wonderfully,” “dances with great skill” and “vividly expresses her perspective.”

No, a diva preaches. She commands. She transforms. She dazzles. She conquers.

This is how you should talk about your brand, too.

• Eliminate superfluous and fussy words and corporate buzz speak.

• Layer in meaty adjectives that roll like thunder from the tongue.

• Wrap messages within the comforting and secure arms of a story.

• And never release any content into the wild that does not have a specific goal and purpose.

3. Divas look fierce.

What is the hallmark of a diva?

The look, baby — the clothes, the hair, the shoes, the style.

Do not underestimate the importance of appearance for your content, too.

• Choose powerful images to go along with your writing. (Or maybe skip text all-together, and let video or audio assets do the talking for you.)

• Make sure that the media or medium that holds your content is well designed and creates a fluid and intuitive user experience.

• Make sure your content is well optimized for search and can be easily viewed on multiple devices.

4. Divas make their mark.

You remember a diva after she walks out of the room.

That’s by design.

Everything a diva does is carefully calculated to create the biggest splash and leave a longest lasting impression.

You need to be similarly strategic with your content.

• Carefully and methodically research your audience to get a better understanding of what they want and need.

• Design an immersive experience around your content to highlight your audience’s senses, tantalize their imaginations and leave them hungry for more.

• Connect all the dots between your content to create a digital breadcrumb trail that ensures you get a return on your investment of time and effort.

5. Divas dream big.

Divas aren’t satisfied being the biggest fish in the pond. They want to be the biggest fish in the ocean.

In fact, many of the biggest divas are hyphenates, (they sing, act, dance, write, produce, etc.) They want to conquer all the oceans.

You need to think that big with your content, too.

• Reach further in where you publish and distribute your content (Explore guest posting, content syndication or joining content communities.)

• Try something new to expand your content repertoire (Write a whole lot? Give podcasting or video a try.)

• Stop talking about yourself all the time and start interviewing your customers and telling their stories.

The world is your oyster, content diva. So, go out there and crack it open!

Turn to your favorite diva — whether that’s Barbra, Cher, Madonna, Mariah, Gaga, Beyonce or someone new — for inspiration and a well-heeled kick in the pants if you get stuck while you’re crackin.

Here’s a song from new favorite inspiration, Janelle Monae, to get you started…

• Memorable look? Check.

• Funky dance moves in killer stilettos? Check.

• Thoughtful lyrics with a hot hook? Check.

Sounds like a diva in the making to me.

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Content and Communications Strategist – Jennifer Kane of Kane Consulting – Minneapolis, MN

Jennifer Kane is an entrepreneur and marketing/communications strategist with more than 15 years of experience working with B2B and B2C companies through her firm, Kane Consulting.

Jennifer conducts training sessions, teaches and speaks nationally on topics related to social media, content marketing, change management and digital communications. Combining humor, tough love and passion, she’s known for giving it to people straight — from the hip and from the heart.

In addition to writing for her own blog, The Social Cyborg, Jennifer is part of the author community at Steamfeed, has guest blogged for BlogWorld and Mark Schaefer’s blog, {GROW} and been syndicated on BlogHer. She is also frequent guest on the Next Stage Business Radio Network podcasts.

Jennifer is mom to one active eight-year-old and two lazy Basset Hounds and manages the “Spinal Fusions Suck” social community on Facebook. In her spare time, she thinks a lot about the zombie apocalypse and the awkwardness of writing about oneself in third person.

You can connect with Jennifer on…

Twitter: @JenKaneCo

Facebook: kaneconsulting

LinkedIn: JenKaneCo

Pinterest: JenKaneCo

Google Plus: Jennifer Kane

Guest Post

How to Wrangle Your Content Gremlins by @JenKaneCo

March 14, 2013 by Guest Post 3 Comments

by Jennifer Kane | Featured Contributor

You know what’s one of the most intimidating sights you’re ever going to see?

That, right there.

White space…a big, blank expanse of it, waiting to be filled with words and images to market your company, sell your product/service or communicate with your contacts.

That white space is special. You can’t just fill it up with random thoughts or poorly written tripe. (Although, many people do.)

If you want that white space to work hard for your business, you need to fill it with content that is original, interesting, entertaining, enlightening or educational.

And, sometimes that is hard.

That’s because our brains are ruled by two rambunctious gremlins – each vying to become the Emperor of the White Space.

One gremlin a writer who comes up with ideas.
One gremlin is an editor who helps those ideas make sense.

The trick to creating good content for your business is to effectively wrangle them both.

1. The idea gremlin.

Your idea gremlin’s strength is in coming with ideas and translating those ideas into words and images. He’s a creator, not a builder.

The best way to harness his power is to avoid sitting down with the intention to, “Write something good.” That kind of pressure can give your idea gremlin a panic attack.

Instead, make it your goal to write something bad…every day.

Cram your head with things you read, see and hear and let that information percolate. When an idea comes bubbling to the surface from those sources, or you have time to do an actual brainstorming session, sit and write down/type up those thoughts as soon as possible

These ideas can be ill conceived, misspelled, incoherent or rambling (Or, all of the above.) That’s A-okay. You and your idea gremlin are giving birth to something here. As any woman can tell you, birth ain’t pretty.

Try to collect a whole file or notebook of these half-formed, off-the-top-of-your-head missives. Some may become great pieces of content someday. Some may not. The important thing is to make sure you have a lot of ideas to choose from so the odds of finding a winner are in your favor.

During this phase, resist the urge to let your editing gremlin participate.

Don’t scroll back through what you’ve created to look for gaps, cracks and inconsistencies.
Don’t question the work and think, “Does this even make any sense?”
Don’t ponder, “How am I going to use this for my business?”

Just write, darlin. The idea gremlin will take care of the rest.

2. The editing gremlin.

Okay, time to tag team and let the other gremlin out of the box.

Your editing gremlin is really great at helping you determine which of your ideas is worth editing, and then will help you with the technical task of editing it. He’s a pragmatist, not an idealist.

The best way to harness his power is to gather all of your ideas together and sort them into topic groupings so you can get a bird’s eye view of what you have to work with (and where you have holes.)

Some of your ideas are probably strong. Some of them are probably weak. Some of them are probably so similar they should be merged together. The editing gremlin can help determine which is which.

Look deep within all these ideas and see if you can spot any diamonds in the rough, where the idea gremlin was on a roll, but didn’t follow through to flesh it out or back it up. Do a gut check and see if any of these ideas make you more excited than others, (Passion is combustible. It will fuel the editing process.)

Just be sure not to toss any ideas you don’t use. Someday, those ideas might grow into content that could fill a different expanse of white space. Your idea gremlin is probably dying to get another crack at them. So, tuck them away for that rainy day.

During this phase, resist the urge to let your idea gremlin participate.

Don’t add new ideas to the hopper, (You’ve got lots already.)
Don’t second guess the ideas and think, “What would happen if I took this in a entirely different direction?”
Don’t ponder, “Why do I even need any of this content?”

Just focus, darlin. The editing gremlin will take care of the rest.

3. The results.

Ultimately, both of your little brain gremlins are mischievous imps, who like to play more than they like to work. So, you’re going to have to be the grown-up and call the shots during this writing and editing process.

Don’t forget…

Keep your end goals in sight.
Harness the gremlin’s gifts.
Listen to your gut.
Trust your instincts.
Give yourself props for putting forth the effort. (Seriously.)

Just do it, darlin. You are a better writer and editor than you even know.

You are the Emperor of the White Space in this kingdom.

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Content and Communications Strategist – Jennifer Kane of Kane Consulting – Minneapolis, MN

Jennifer Kane is an entrepreneur and marketing/communications strategist with more than 15 years of experience working with B2B and B2C companies through her firm, Kane Consulting.

You can connect with Jennifer on…

Twitter: @JenKaneCo

Facebook: kaneconsulting

LinkedIn: JenKaneCo

Pinterest: JenKaneCo

Google Plus: Jennifer Kane

Guest Post