1. Keep Outreach Relevant

Begin by creating a list of blogs that includes all the pertinent information – URL, email addresses, blog name, blogger name(s), and coverage topics. Your list should include any and all potentially relevant blogs. Even if they aren’t relevant now, they may be in the future. Only reach out to the ones that are relevant for the press release, announcement, or other outreach purpose at hand.

2. Part of Outreach is Knowing How to Reach Out

Visit each blog’s About section and read it. It will most likely have information on how to reach out to the blog. Include this in your master blog list and – this is important – follow the directions! Do not make contact via Facebook wall posts or messages.

3. Timing is Important

When you reach out is important. As with any press, make sure that you give the writer plenty of time to do the proper research, ask questions, and write. Sometimes it takes bloggers a while to get through their emails (some receive 50, 100 or even more per day!) so as much lead time as possible is always appreciated.

4. Catch Attention with a Catchy Subject Line

The subject line is the first thing people see when it comes to email. Catch their attention, be brief, and be descriptive. If the blogger receives lots of emails each day, they will likely be skimming quickly and won’t pay attention to a lengthy subject line. Likewise, make sure the Author line is clear and concise as well.

5. Get to the Point in your Body Copy

Personalize it but be professional. Keep the opening brief. Including something personal is a way to connect with the blogger, and including the most pertinent information up front is equally as important. Specifics can come later in the email once you’ve grabbed their attention. Make sure anything pertinent is easy to find, such as an event location or product launch date. If all else fails, focus on creating a traditional press release and include it in the body of the email (NOT in a Word document attachment).

6. Always Include Additional Information

Always include links to where the blogger can find more information (bios, product descriptions, photos from previous events, company boilerplates, etc.). Make sure that any photos you provide are high resolution. If you include an attachment, be mindful of how large it is. You don’t want to overwhelm their inbox with a 12MB email, so providing a link to where they can grab that 12mb file might be a better idea (a press page on your business website, perhaps).

7. Consistency Consistency Consistency

Be consistent and brand your message. Using a branded email newsletter template is one way to develop consistency, but keep it simple. We like Campaign Monitor for our email newsletter but have kept press releases simple with text, links, and an occasional image attachment only. Also, don’t forget to adhere to CANSPAM compliance.

8. Do the proper Follow Up, but don’t Overdo it

It doesn’t hurt to follow up. In Gmail, seeing a message that has a (2) or (3) near the subject line can grab attention better than the subject line itself. However, don’t bombard the blogger with emails. One or two follow-ups should do it, and don’t be discouraged if they never respond.

9. Timely Responses are Imperative

As bloggers are all about getting information out, be prepared to answer questions quickly and in a timely manner. Anything beyond 24 hours may be unacceptable – they could very likely take a post live before you have a chance to respond.

10. Appreciation, Kudos, and A Job Well Done

Set up the appropriate alerts to monitor any coverage that may be posted from your outreach. Note that due to a lack of time, not all bloggers will let you know they provided you with coverage. If something is posted from your outreach by a blogger, send along a little appreciation email. Bloggers like to know you noticed and often appreciate kind words. And, when you reach out in the future, definitely include a little personal note about the coverage as preclusion to your next request.

There it is - 10 tips on blogger outreach for small business. Feel free to drop a line and add your own tip if you’ve got one. We’d love to hear it!

Check-in sites are creating a lot of buzz at this time and their presence isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. In fact, more and more social sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are incorporating location-based features – so it is only poised to grow.

Arguably two of the more prominent location-based sites are Yelp and Foursquare. Both allow users to check-in at various locations and leave tips or reviews of the businesses they visit. Each has implications toward and provides opportunities for small business.

YELP

What is it? Yelp is one of the most well-known ratings and review sites around and features a larger social aspect than many other similar sites. Businesses can enhance their presence by adding promotions, uploading photos, and engaging raters/reviewers. Whether you like it or not, your business is probably on Yelp. This year Yelp added a check-in feature to their mobile application, allowing Yelpers to notify their friends and followers when they visit a business.

Why is it important? When in a foreign destination, a Yelp phone app can help one navigate their way to popular destinations. I used it in both Seattle and Portland to navigate the streets by foot to hip, highly rated coffee shops. I used it last weekend in Anacortes when I wanted a quick bite to eat. In other words, it tells consumers what spots are popular, what spots are hip, what spots are inexpensive or too expensive, and what spots you might want to avoid due to poor service or bad quality. The results can ultimately impact your business.

How can it benefit your business? First and foremost, as with any ratings and reviews site, Yelp is a good judge of how your products and/or services are being received by the customer. At the very minimum, as a small business owner, you should be monitoring your presence. You may also want to take the next step and claim your business. This will allow you to enhance the presence with photos and, to a certain extent, communicate with your raters/reviewers.

FOURSQUARE

What is it? Foursquare is a social location-based game in which participants get points for going out, visiting various destinations, and checking-in at the destination via their mobile phone. The person who has checked in most at a business receives the Mayor badge for that establishment. Badges are earned for achieving various feats, like going out multiple days in a row or checking in at several businesses in a 24-hour period.

Why is it important? Foursquare is currently the most talked-about location-based check-in site at this time. The site appeals to a young (33% of users are 18 to 34) male (58%) population. In May, Mashable reported that Foursquare has “more than half a million users, 1.4 million venues and 15.5 million check-ins.”

How can it benefit your business? Foursquare now allows business managers or owners to claim their business. Once claimed, the owner/manager can acquire venue analytics and set up various specials including mayor specials (available only to the person with the Mayor badge), check-in specials (offered after x number of check-ins at your business), and more.

SOCIAL INTEGRATION

Both Foursquare and Yelp have integrated syndication of reviews and check-ins to popular social sites like Twitter and Yelp. When I checked in at gere-a-deli (an Anacortes sandwich shop) a few days ago, I allowed Foursquare to post my check-in on Twitter and Facebook. Likewise, when I reviewed the Skagit Valley Food Co-op a few months back, I posted my review to Facebook. Foursquare also allowed me to leave a tip at the Co-op — if you bring your own mug, their delicious drip coffee is only $0.97.

Not only can you connect your accounts, you can create a Yelp and Foursquare profile by logging in via Facebook. By connecting Yelp and/or Foursquare to your Facebook account, you can easily find and add friends. On occasion, they’ll even inform you when a Facebook friend has joined the site. I invited two Facebook Friends to connect with me on Yelp over the weekend after being notified via Yelp that they had joined the site.

WHAT THIS MEANS

To put the integration of social networking into perspective, the Mashable article mentioned above notes that Foursquare’s “number-one referrer is Facebook.” That means people frequently click their friends’ Yelp reviews and Foursquare check-ins. And more eyes means greater awareness and opportunities that come with it to connect with your customer base. Especially now that Facebook is about to hit 500 million users, a staggering number.

Whether or not I’m new to the area, I’m looking for local hotspots. If I see a promotion, coupon or other special offered via Yelp, Foursquare or another social site, I am more apt to take advantage of the offer – especially if the business has overwhelmingly positive reviews or is a popular destination.

Location-based social tools aren’t going away, so optimizing your business to take advantage of the potential they offer can ultimately pay off in generating awareness, developing greater customer connections, and ultimately building bigger fans.

Mashable recently posted another article recommending the next direction for location-based sites like these called “Beyond The Checkin.” We recommend it – it’s a good read.

A week and a half ago, Jacque and I attended Social Media Conference Northwest here in Mount Vernon. We met folks from across Washington and beyond, and saw some pretty amazing speakers. Most notably were the keynotes James Burnes and Brad Nelson. Throughout the conference, a few items were emphasized again and again. Below, I’ve listed five I found most important for businesses as social media continues to grow. In many ways, these five were instrumental in our development of the bqFILTER process we launched a few months back.

1. Know your customer
We’ve said this before, several times. Know who they are, where they participate online, and how they participate online. The better you know your customer, the better you can engage them.

2. Be a user
While not mandatory, it definitely helps to know the tools you use. If you’re unfamiliar with a tool like Facebook, Twitter, or Yelp, utilizing an agency like BrandQuery can help teach you the tools and how best to utilize them in reaching your audience. This was also emphasized over and over during the HIVE.mobile AIGA event on mobile marketing and design that Derek and I attended in early March.

3. At the very minimum, listen
Like it or not, people are talking about you. Word of mouth has always been a one-on-one process, but with the boom of emerging media and social networking, this is no longer the case. Now it’s public, meaning you need to know what people are saying. With the growing presence of review and location-based sites like Yelp, Foursquare and even Angie’s List, social monitoring has never been more important.

4. Strategize before you start
If you’re going to get involved, you need a strategy. Your strategy should surround both #1 and #2 on this list, and it should also include a contingency or process if something negative crops up during #3. Having a well-defined, WRITTEN strategy is important in ensuring employees know what is and is not appropriate.

5. Monitor, review, revise
Monitor your strategy to ensure it is moving forward as it should. Creating metrics and goals, and regularly reviewing the tactics to reach these goals will help you on your way to being successful in the social space. At the conference, they recommended reviewing your strategy once a quarter. It is also important to revise the strategy and its goals when necessary. Emerging media is constantly changing, and your strategy and tactics should be nimble enough to account for this change.

With all the talk surrounding Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the various other social networking and emerging media websites, businesses are looking for new ways to reach their audiences online. We created FILTER to assist these businesses in strategically integrating their marketing into this area and to help them better understand the available tools.

At the core of FILTER is something you’ve heard before. In fact, Jacque wrote a blog post about it back in January. I’ll reiterate a point she wrote near the beginning of that post: First and foremost, the customer should always be on your mind.

A staggering number of social tools are at your fingertips. Which will you choose? I’m here to say that you may not be ready. There are three core phases in the social media process, and most organizations skip the first, allow the second to fizzle, and forget about the third. For some, these three may seem like common sense, but they’re often pushed aside in the hype surrounding emerging social tools.

1. Strategize
Think about your customer: Who are they? What motivates them? What are their values? What will they respond to positively? What will engage them? Before jumping head over heels into social media, you need a plan – a strategy. You need goals and objectives, and you need the metrics to determine if your goals and objectives are being met.

2. Execute
Once you have a solid strategy in place, now you can determine how to implement it. Does it involve Facebook and Twitter? Maybe it instead centers around Yelp or even YouTube. Implementation and execution can be as complex as the strategy. Having a Facebook page doesn’t mean you’re automatically popular in your customer’s demographic. It takes persistence and follow-through.

3. Evaluate
In the first phase, goals and objectives should have been created. Now the metrics you put in place to monitor them are put to work. Have you been successful, or not? If so, what’s next? If not, what can you change in terms of execution to be successful? Regular monitoring and analysis of your metrics can help you reach your goals. There are some really great tools available to help you with this work.

The emerging media landscape is just that: emerging. It’s continually evolving and morphing into something different than it was yesterday. Have a solid strategy in place to target your audience, and consistently follow-through in the implementation of your plan. It’s important to continually review the metrics you set in place to determine strategy success as you enter emerging and social media marketing. A process like FILTER and the regular upkeep of the three core elements noted above can help your organization be successful in this space.

Creating the account made me think about the importance of a brand in its emerging media presence. Plenty of posts exist that discuss how businesses with Twitter accounts need to utilize icons, make branded backgrounds, and create the ideal branded page. But if you expand your presence across many social sites the big picture gets bigger.

BrandQuery has always been about enhancing an organization’s brand, and with the emergence of social sites in the marketing mix, a brand should be consistent in this space as well. That’s important: a brand must be consistent in this space as well. Having a standardized brand look and feel will capitalize on your customers’ ability to remember who you are and, if done properly, will also attract your target audiences with matching demographics. Although – your brand can be modified to fit as social spaces vary in terms of what they allow users to do.

When extending your brand across multiple social tools that allow customizable profiles, here are five items to consider correlating:

1. Identity: This may seem a bit obvious, but some seem to forget this most important element. Your identity should be present no matter where you participate online – be it a logo, icon, or merely your company name. Your company name should also be your username, appear in the URL and Page Title when possible, and pop up throughout your social site.

2. Color: Know your brand’s colors and use them consistently. Your website should have these colors incorporated into it, as should anything you do online.

3. Imagery: Coordinate background images when possible, as well as your icon. This is another important step toward brand implementation. It furthers continuity and emphasizes recognition.

4. Font: A few sites allow you to change web fonts. If this is available, use the same hierarchy found on your website. Again, the key is consistency.

5. Content: Managing multiple social areas for your company can be cumbersome if you do it piecemeal. There are plenty of tools out there that can simplify the process. For example, you can update your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace accounts simultaneously from an application like TweetDeck. YouTube allows you to connect with various social sites as well. Using these tools helps you easily maintain content continuity.

Now that you have seen our five considerations when branding your business across multiple social sites, here are two disclaimers.

Disclaimer 1. Symmetry Isn’t Always Possible: Symmetry may be the wrong word, and synergy the right one. Your social presence should emphasize a unity between the various social tools you may enter. Some sites allow for greater customizability (YouTube, Twitter, MySpace) while others only allow minimal (Facebook, Yelp). Do what you can to brand them, but know that minor differences even between the more customizable are OK to keep things interesting.

Disclaimer 2. Don’t Enter Without A Strategy: We aren’t recommending you join social sites for the sake of joining. Doing the proper research and developing an appropriate strategy is the first step. Only then can you properly target your desired audience.

In creating your strategy, you must 1) determine what your internal capabilities are, 2) define the social make-up of your customer, and 3) pinpoint which social tools your customers use most. These three elements, too, are in-depth and complex. A strategic emerging media process, like our bqFILTER, can help. FILTER: Facilitate, Identify, Listen, Target, Engage, and Review.

First and foremost, the customer should always be on your mind. They are why you are in business. In addition to that, your current customer should be the one on your mind, not the one you don’t yet have. They know you, they have bought from you, and they are most likely to buy from you again, that is, unless you forget them!

At BrandQuery, our goal is to get inside the customer’s head; to understand who they are, what they do, and how they do it. This begins by taking a good look at your existing customer and learning more about them. Their age will tell you some obvious things but further digging will reveal real truths. Needless to say, don’t make assumptions. To find out who your customers really are, you will have to ask pointed questions.

Once you have defined your customer, it is important to create a message that will be meaningful to them. All of the tools you use to attract attention are useless unless your message is the right one and that it is targeted at the right group.

It’s easy to get ahead of yourself (or your customer for that matter). It gets exciting when there are new tools or new opportunities for promoting your business. But don’t jump too quick, take the time to earn a greater ROI.

Social media is getting a lot of attention. We are certainly participating and have for a while now. We also counsel our clients regarding social media or what we like to call emerging media. The biggest takeaway of social media is a greater ability to listen to the customer. If for no other reason to get into this movement, it is certainly that. Even if you are paying attention to your competitor’s audience or the industry’s audience.

Stay tuned, we will be launching a new website soon on our social media process.

And for now, keep in mind, the customer still rules!

A Social Media Policy can be simple or comprehensive. Having one in place will make apparent whether its use is acceptable and, if so, what is appropriate.

Here are 10 items to consider when developing such a policy:

1. Your organization’s philosophy

Your company philosophy should translate well into your policies. If you pride yourself on flexibility, it should be reflected in the policy; the same would hold true for a company that holds its privacy close. The BBC Policy does a good job of stating their philosophy of engagement and flexibility.

2. The definition of social or emerging media

Define the scope of social media tools, what they are, and what they mean. Blogging, while not essentially “new” is still considered emerging media. Your definition should extend into all areas, from networking (LinkedIn, Facebook) to reviews (Yelp) to social bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon). Be detailed enough that executives and employees alike understand the various areas, yet broad enough to encompass new items that will arise in the future. In their introduction, Intel defines emerging media as “creating or contributing to blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds, or any other kind of social media both on and off intel.com.” Concluding with that open‐ended sentence and spanning to include both Intel‐based media outlets as well as personal ones keeps the definition broad and all‐inclusive.

3. The definition of representative

Who do your employees represent online: your business or themselves? This can be a gray area. For example, many people include their employer on their Facebook profile. If an employee is allowed to represent the business in online discussions, have guidelines in place as how to best represent the company. Twitter is a tool where the individual’s name is often identified yet the message may be the company’s. Having a clear policy regarding messaging is very important in this case, as is a path to follow when this employee is no longer in your employ. Dell’s Online Communication Policy provides employees with guidelines to use when explicitly representing the company.

4. Discussion of/with clients or customers

Address talking about clients and customers online, what is appropriate and what is not. You should also include information about communicating with clients and customers through social media. For example, do you want your employees to befriend clients, customers or even vendors on Facebook? If not, what is your policy if a client or vendor adds the employee as a friend? CBC has a good policy surrounding this concept.

5. Sharing company information

Create parameters as to what is appropriate to share and what is not. If an employee is considering writing something about the company, they’ll likely have questions. Having a policy in place that defines suitable topics and topics to avoid will help guide the employee in their writing. Sun Microsystems keeps it simple with the headline “Don’t Tell Secrets.”

6. Appropriate language

Insist in your policy that employees be respectful, that they define their tone, and they always re‐read to ensure their messages (especially sensitive responses) are conveyed sincerely and appropriately. Since conversing online lacks the nuances of in‐person conversations, responses, posts and other forms of social interaction can, at times, be deceiving. What may be an honest response to negative criticism might come across as sarcastic or even rude if tone isn’t taken into consideration. The BBC Policy section on tone of voice addresses the sensitive nature of responding.

7. Personal use at work

What are employees allowed to do during the workday and during breaks? You may see no issue with them using their personal computer or cell phone to blog, check e‐mail or monitor their social networks during lunch. What about monitoring throughout the day? You’ll want something in place to address this. It is also an appropriate area to communicate your position on the use of company equipment for personal social interaction when it does not relate to the organization.

8. Following the guidelines

Communicating your process is ideal. Having your guidelines accessible so your employees can refer to them at will is important. You may wish to post them online, on a company wiki, or as a downloadable PDF on your intranet. Or you may simply want to store them in a PDF on the company server. The advantage to having them online is that it gives your employees the ability to reference them easily from home if they have a question while engaging in social media on personal time.

9. A point person

Your employees will likely continue to have questions about whether an item is or isn’t acceptable according to your policy. This should be expected as emerging media and its use is new. Select a point person who can help employees with gray areas that will inevitably arise. This person should have a solid understanding of the company philosophy, a grasp of social media, and its impact. The point person could be the same person who manages and moderates your business blog. If you have a PR department or person who manages PR within your organization, they would also be a perfect choice.

10. Disciplinary action

Consequences should be stated clearly. Many companies include a scope, from limited disciplinary action to termination of employment with possible legal action (for strict breaches). IBM leaves this open with “there are always consequences to what you publish” in the policy section titled Use Your Best Judgment.

Final note ‐ transparency is important. Maintain oversight and utilize available tools for monitoring. And, like your company, the new should evolve over time.

To give you another example of how this works, here’s a scenario. I was at the base of the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle over the weekend and wanted a hip coffee shop to camp out at for a few hours – a place that had style and free wireless connectivity. I pulled up the Yelp application on my phone, did a quick filter for coffee shops that had wireless internet and were located within 0.3 miles of where I was at the time, and selected the one with the highest rating. Then I watched myself navigate the streets of Seattle on Google Maps toward the coffee shop of my dreams (in this case, Victrola on First Hill).

Opportunities for small businesses exist with sites like Yelp, but so do potential problems. In my opinion, the opportunities far outweigh the problems. We’ll discuss a few of each here.

Opportunity 1. Listen In: Monitor

In a large city, it’s not unusual for a popular restaurant to have upwards of 200 ratings. In a small town, 20 can be a good thing. The ratings, out of 5 stars, can tell visitors where to go and where not to go. Big city, small town; wherever your business is located, it’s important to know what people are saying about you. Yelp makes it easy.

Opportunity 2. Take Action: Improve

Per the norm when reviews are involved, not everyone has a good rating. But with a site like Yelp, companies can pinpoint their problem areas and take the necessary actions to correct issues that may exist, thus winning back the loyalty of customers that may have initially given a bad review. Making changes made based on feedback from sites like Yelp can assist you in improving your business and providing the products and/or services your customers demand.

Opportunity 3. Let It Be Known: Promote

Walking around Seattle, I began to notice something: select businesses (restaurants in particular) with high Yelp ratings promoted the fact with a Yelp sticker near their door. It told people to check them out on Yelp and see what others were saying about them. With a data plan for your phone, you can do so instantaneously. Now, imagine placing a Data Matrix Code next to a promotional Yelp sticker that links straight to your Yelp profile, making it even easier for potential customers to see you online. Pretty cool.

Reading a Yelp forum, there appears to be questions surrounding how a business gets a Yelp sticker. However, the Yelp Blog noted back in March that these stickers are sent out quarterly to businesses with “a bunch of reviews and an average rating over 3.5 stars.” Since we have a friend at Yelp, we can answer any questions you have through her.

Opportunity 4. Communicate: Engage

Yelp allows businesses to create a business account from which they can edit their profile, provide users with special offers, and email or respond to reviewers. If someone writes a negative review and your company makes improvements based on the review, contact that individual and let them know you were listening and that because of their review you took action.

Creating a Yelp account for your business will allow you to…

• Communicate with your customers– privately and publicly
• Track how many people view your business page
• Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties
• Announce special offers and upcoming events
• Recommend other businesses
(referenced from the Business Owner’s Guide on Yelp)

Engaging your customers and reviewers in this fashion can help create loyal fans of your business and boost your word-of-mouth marketing efforts. Here’s a tutorial on how to set up your business account:

Problem 1. Poor Ethics: Malicious Behavior

Sites like Yelp, which are based on reviews, struggle with the user generated content (UGC) effect. How do you distinguish negative reviews from those that are malicious and those that are valid? How do you tell the difference between a manipulative positive review and an honest one? While Yelp has a system in place to remove what they view as manipulative reviews, it’s unclear what the specifics are behind the algorithm. Either way, inaccuracies are inevitable. An article in the New York Times notes:

“[Yelp] operates on the premise that reviewers tend to be truthful and that greater accuracy will emerge from more reviews.”

However, in rural areas where fewer people participate on sites like Yelp, one malicious review that slips through the cracks can drastically affect a company’s overall rating, positively or negatively.

Problem 2. Myth versus Fact

In February of 2009, the CEO of Yelp wrote an article titled 9 Myths About Yelp. Deciphering the myths versus the facts of Yelp can be difficult, especially if you’re a business owner that feels wronged by the rating/review company, or just a skeptical consumer. This article will at least allow you to decide for yourself.

Countering The Problems With Yelp

One of the more consistent issues I’ve encountered in my research pertains to the final myth. Creating a Yelp account can help alleviate this problem, but there seems to remain a disassociation between Free Speech (see Myth #7) and Business Voice (Myth #9). The issue is with erroneous information within customer reviews on Yelp. The good news is that, with a Business account, you can now respond to reviews as well - this is a feature that was not always available.

Again, here’s a quick tutorial on how to use Yelp’s business owner tools. They also give some good tips in responding to customers. Any response should be well thought out; after all, your customers will be reading what you write, so write constructively and considerately.

Hot Spots near Downtown Mount Vernon

For locals, here are a few of downtown’s highest rated restaurants:
• The Porterhouse: 4.5 Stars, 8 Reviews
• Skagit River Brewery: 4 Stars, 18 Reviews
• Pacioni’s: 5 Stars, 1 Review
• Empire Ale House: 5 Stars, 1 Review

Most of these restaurants have only a few ratings, and in some cases just one. Like the place? Create an account and write a review.

That being said, I just noticed Same Old Grind has one review and a 4 star rating. I read it, marked the review as useful (other options include “Funny” and “Cool”), checked out the picture the reviewer took (looks pretty neat in there), and am making a mental note to check it out next time I’m in need of a good Americano. Later I think I’ll head home and contemplate what to write for Il Granaio Italian Restaurant’s first review.

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5 Tips for Generating Business Blog Content

1. Write what you know.
2. Write what will engage your audience/customers.
3. Dictate oversight and process.
4. Include more than just words.
5. Prepare for the launch.

Now for some explanations…

1. Write what you know.

You know your business, the industry and the new developments within… so write about them. This seems obvious, but it makes sense. The point is to demonstrate that you and your company are experts on your subject matter. After all, it’s why you’re in business. That being said, blogging is much more subjective than, say, journalism. Subjectivity is a path to wander down carefully, which is why tip #3 is important. However, do not confuse subjectivity with not being factual – it is just as important for bloggers to fact check as it is for journalists, especially when it comes to blogging for your company. The subjective factor is all about building your expertise and demonstrating your knowledge of the subject matter.

2. Write what will engage your audience/customers.

Make sure each post is written in an engaging way – invite feedback, encourage comments, and respond to them when appropriate. Connect what you know from tip #1 with what will actively engage your audience. After all, they will need a reason to visit your blog, and better yet, frequent your blog. And as with any messaging you deliver, it must be tailored to the proper audiences. Knowing how your audience interacts online and what points of interest they may have in your company are important factors in generating effective content. Use this to build curiosity.

3. Dictate oversight and process.

This is one of the more important items you will tackle, and possibly among most difficult to solve. An upper-level manager should ultimately oversee the blog, but (depending on the style of blog and the company) this individual should rarely be the sole content developer – after all, management is already quite busy.

There are a few traits instrumental in finding the right fit for your other company bloggers:

• They must be knowledgeable about the company, industry and audience.
• They should already exist in the online universe and, if possible, the blogosphere.
• They shouldn’t be afraid to write, and write correctly.

Developing an oversight process includes setting parameters for editing and proofing. Anything risqué or out of the norm and any outlying or outlandish opinions have a greater chance of being axed if multiple eyes read and review the content during a tracked editing and proofing processes - and that is a good thing! At BrandQuery we have a process that we recommend for all company blogs we create. In advance of this post going live, it passed by three individuals other than the author for edits, recommendations, and comments. This process may seem arduous but it does a few things; it allows others to chime in on the topic and it creates an opportunity for a correct use of language and information.

4. Include more than just words.

Just as websites are unrecognizable in comparison to their early counterpart, so are blogs. These days, it’s important to include more than just words. This includes the following:

• Optimized imagery with descriptive and relevant alt tags.
• Audio and/or video when appropriate.
• Strategic article titles for SEO purposes.
• External links to other sites to define terms, list other relevant articles, back your material, etc.
• Internal links to related topics.
• Widgets (See below for description).

These items give your blog a dynamic aspect that keeps things interesting. The last item, widgets, deserves further explanation, and I plan to write a post about it in the coming weeks. A widget is a section of code that can easily be inserted into HTML. They can allow you to easily add your recent Twitter posts (tweets), include a countdown, list your most-viewed posts, and more.

5. Prepare for the launch.

The best way to prepare for the launch of your business blog is to familiarize the bloggers with the writing process. The benefit is twofold: writers begin generating content, which acts as a backlog of material for the blog, and they get used to writing for the company on a regular basis.

Ideally, you should get in the habit of maintaining a comfortable backlog of material to post. My recommendation: develop 5 to 10 posts in advance of launching, and schedule them accordingly (one per week, two per week, or whatever publishing duration you dictate in your strategy). Determine an appropriate and comfortable backlog of material that works for you. This will help when you’re busy and don’t have as much time to write.

When you’re ready to launch, publish your introduction post announcing your company blog to the world, and then in quick succession publish a few additional posts from the backlog to give your audience a taste of what’s to come. Two to three posts should do it. Then continue at the schedule decided upon.

That’s It For Now…

Sure, oversight and preparation are not instrumental in generating effective content for your blog, but having a strict process in place and being ready to launch with a backlog of material can create good habits, which in turn facilitate content generation. And for first-time bloggers, facilitation can be the key to success.

I titled this post Business Blog Strategy: Generating Effective Content, but these same tools can be applied to your other online outreach tactics, from Twitter to Facebook.

Rembember…

Our final words of wisdom (and this may sound a bit odd, as our last post was in August): Continue to update your blog on a regular basis as it’s an integral part of managing a business blog, maintaining current readers, and gaining new followers. If you don’t have time, have someone fill in for you. The key is to be consistent in your posts; having a defined schedule will help.

Enjoy the holiday!

Here are some basic facts that demonstrate why web presence is important for small businesses.

1. Your Customers Are Online

With today’s technology, having a solid online presence is becoming imperative for small businesses. Your customers are online constantly – especially those with 3G phones and other highly connected mobile devices. People are turning to the web and mobile device applications to find what they’re looking for both close to home as well as on the road. This sort of connectivity extends far beyond what was available five years ago.

This trend defies demographics including age, as users of all ages are flocking to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Large, clunky, space consuming phone books are quickly becoming a thing of the past; after all, it’s easier to hop online and do a quick search on Google, Yahoo or Bing, or do a quick search using the appropriate mobile application.

So your customers are online… why aren’t you?

2. Directory Listings Are Not Enough

Online directory listings are nice in that they quickly give the viewer options. After all, they are the modern version of the phone book – a barebones list of what’s available. But they occasionally include erroneous information like out-of-date phone numbers, old addresses, and broken links to expired websites. It is important to monitor the directories in which your business appears, ensure they’re up to date, and correct them when changes occur.

However, even with all listing information correct, consumers often need an added push to commit to choosing your company over the next. Mere presence on directories is not enough as the directory listing is a far cry from an adequate gauge of the business in question.

3. A Well-Designed Website Can Mean More Customers

When it comes to the final decision, having a modern web presence can absolutely be that tipping point. The term simple here does not necessarily mean basic. It does mean the site should be easy to find and easy to navigate; and you should be able to do this without breaking your budget.

Being easy to find and easy to navigate includes:

- User-friendliness
- Search engine optimized
- Visually appealing
- Organized & uncluttered
- Modern in layout & functionality

If you’re a restaurant, there are a few basic elements to include. Adorn your site with clear, quality photos of your most popular dishes and include sample menu prices. The site should reflect the atmosphere inside your business – utilize a complimentary color scheme and feature imagery from inside and outside your restaurant, highlighting what makes it a unique and desirable meal destination.

Just as important as creating a site that compliments your business is informing your potential customers how to find you. Pull an interactive map from Google Maps and put it on your contact page so viewers can easily get directions if they’re unfamiliar with the area. Add your days and hours of operation and include a phone number and email address so people can contact you with questions or make reservations.

And don’t forget to make sure your site works well on various web browsers and phones. The latter means using minimal (or better yet no) flash.

4. Search Friendliness Is Imperative

Obviously, a small business must think about how to reach its customers online. Search friendliness extends beyond mere web presence. While web presence can be the deciding factor, the consumer must first find your website. There are a few tips that can help:

- Search Engine Optimization
- Directory Listing Management
- Map Optimization
- Relationship Building

SEO can help boost your site on various keyword searches, but it can require regular and time consuming maintenance as search engines regularly alter their search algorithms – those web crawlers that scour the web and rank pages. Ensuring you utilize the words individuals may use to find you in the body copy of your site can help, as can minimizing flash elements (especially in the navigation).

The next two include the optimization of directories and maps listings. Having a website linked to from a directory or reviews site can mean a consumer giving you their business rather than your competitor. Spend some time to make sure the information is correct and has all the components needed to assist your potential customer in giving you business. Adding your business to Google Maps and optimizing it by highlighting specific search items may give you key rank positions in these searches.

Relationship building is the next topic.

5. Your Customers Can Help Spread The Word

The first four tips are all about creating and enhancing your online presence, but there’s a force out there that extends far beyond what you can do alone. Once you’re out there, you can now begin focusing on and developing an interactive strategy that will get your fans to do additional legwork for you. The nature of your business, the demographics of your audience, and your goals and objectives can help dictate and define this strategy. But without an initial presence, activating your audience will be much more difficult.

This area includes everything from blogger outreach to encouraging ratings and reviews. Blogger outreach for restaurants could mean searching for local bloggers that frequently or even occasionally write about food and seeing if they’d be interested in writing a review of your restaurant. It could also mean finding local raters and reviewers on sites like Yelp, which collect ratings and reviews of businesses like restaurants, and encouraging them to come down. You could even link to your Yelp profile from your website.

Why Web Presence Is Important: A Summary

These days, we as consumers are turning more and more to the web to find what we are looking for, a trend that is magnified by the growing popularity of highly connected mobile devices like 3G and 4G phones. Having a strong presence via a well-rounded and well-connected website can help small businesses turn potential customers into regulars, and it can be the launching pad to turn the regulars into die-hard fans who will help you spread the word.

Back to the beginning: my friend and I ultimately decided to forego the restaurant and instead met at Ikea. Had the restaurant maintained a viable online presence, we may have enjoyed a nice sushi lunch.