Social Media Guerilla

How to Build a Blog Community in 6 Easy Steps!

GuerillaRoberto — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:09:56 +0000

You should already be familiar with these sites!

That’s right, Guerilleros! As I promised, today we are going to look at how YOU can build a loyal fan base around your blog! I discussed the importance of a blog in the last post, and today I am going to give you 6 steps to follow for building a blog community that can attract real attention. Everything in it is easy, and with a little maintenance, you can have a killer blog following!

1) Provide Quality Content! (Duh!)

No one is going to read a blog with nothing on it, or worse, nothing good on it. So get a writer, or sharpen your pencil, because without some awesome content, written well, no one cares about your blog. Should this even be listed as a step?

The key is quality. An excellent test for this is to ask your self, Would I put this on my personal blog? If the answer is No, get back to writing. And it can’t be stressed enough: A Blog Is Not An Advertisement! You’re trying to give value to your readers, not sell them something.

2) Comment, Comment, and Comment Some More!

You can pack in as many keywords as you like, but that method is going to take some time to yeild results. Wouldn’t it be nice to find a large group of people who would be likely to be interested in your blog, all at once? You can! Unless you are blogging about something really obscure, someone else is already blogging about it. So go to their sites and leave comments.

But don’t just agree and leave a link. That’s not helping you. Leave insightful comments that show you know what’s up in your subject. Leave enough comments, and the readers will follow. Keep leaving comments, and you might get a link back! It takes time, but it will work!

3) Socialize Your Blog!

This is easy as pie. Put your posts up on Digg, StumbleUpon, all the major social bookmarking sites. This is a social media marketing page, and since you’re reading it, this too should be a given.

4) Keep Socializing!

Seriously, keep at it! Every word you write should go on all of these sites. And not just your writings either. you want to be very active on these sites, so people start to recognize your name, and trust you as a source for high caliber content.

5) Share the Page!

No one goes to just one person for advice, and that’s true for your blog, too! So instead of letting the reader go somewhere else for that second opinion, bring it to them. Ask other blog authors to write a piece for your site. They should be honored you asked, plus it’s free publicity for them, as well as a way to increase their followers with your followers. And your fans stay loyal, because you brought them a whole new place to learn from. Win-win for everyone!

6) Spread the Word Domestically!

Nothing is more aggrevating than asking an employee of your clients if they saw their picture on the blog, and they reply “What blog?” Really? Why are we even bothering, if your client’s employees don’t even know about it?

The largest fan base is initially composed of an extended network made up of the friends of people directly connected to the blog. AKA, the employee’s friends and families are going to get the word out a lot faster than you. Use it!

That’s it folks! Building a blog community doesn’t get any easier than that. Yeah, it’s a little time consuming, but it’s worth it. Once you have a loyal fan base, you’re set. And speaking of loyal fan bases, make sure you join the revolution, and become a Social Media Guerilla!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

The Importance of Building a Blog Community for Your Business

GuerillaRoberto — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:35:31 +0000

Wait, that's not 3.0!

Bet you thought the Guerilla Chefe was back when you saw that boring title, didn’t you? Sorry, Guerilleros. It’s still Guerilla Roberto. This week however, the Chefe did pick the topic and that’s why I picked the title. Personally, I would have made a pun. But pun’s don’t do so well in SEO. So let’s get down to business and discuss why blogs are so important to any business now!First, let’s clarify a bit. There are two main types of businesses I’m talking about.

The Type that sells a Product
The Type that sells a Service

And the reasons are about the same for both, though you may find some differences.

For a business that sells, the blog community is it’s free promotional staff. People before internet bought things because they were convinced by clever ads or commercials. Their pool of people they could ask about a product was limited, and they were unlikely to get valuable feedback.

Now however, everyone can make and read comments about products all over the internet. Everyone’s a critic. Now, everyone can learn all the details and pro’s and con’s of a product from other people who have used it, and who they trust more than the company, because they know the people aren’t trying to sell them. It’s a case of consumers being jaded to standard advertising.

However, a business with it’s own blog being updated regularly can build a large base of followers if it has quality content that appeals to people. Whether the content is a detailing of events, or just information related somewhat to the product they are selling, people will read it if it’s good. And then they recommend it to other people on other sites, increasing your base followers. And with all of these people, they are likely to look to you for your product or service should the need arise. Thereby, making you money.

Indeed, the Guerilla Chefe had a radio interview just because of this site. Word of mouth can get you free advertising in multiple ways!

Make sure you join us next week when I detail a strategy for building a blog community quickly!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

Social Media Blindside

GuerillaRoberto — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 01:41:19 +0000

Good Morning Guerilleros! Actually it’s about 2:30 in the afternoon my time, but it’s AM somewhere. Today the Guerlla Chefe suggested we discuss proper use of a blog. We’ve been discussing the proper way to utilize a blog, and felt that it might be an appropriate discussion for this blog. And it kind of goes hand in hand with the last post on getting people to read your blog.

Too often it seems that people want to use their blogs as long winded advertisements. That’s not an effective use of a blog. People don’t come back to a blog that’s just a string of commercials. They want content. They want to be informed. And there are several good ways to do this, but generally, I tend to go with two.

My favorite style is to talk about what is going on at the clients place of business. This makes people want to come around more often, so they don’t miss the excitement. Or they see what they DID miss, and make doubly sure to go the next time. It also drives more of the client’s clientele to the blog posts, because they can relive the event they participated in. Try getting a member’s name into the post for bigger bang. We occasionally do member profiles on a fitness club site. It works well for everyone. And it’s just more interesting.

But sometimes you have a client that is boring as hell. Like a hotel that doesn’t throw parties or anything. In that case, give info. Like the top sight seeing spots in the hotel’s area. Or maybe give the top ten travel tips. Shoot a video, and talk about it. Do not just repeatedly slam blog posts about how great the rooms are, or how low the rates are.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t do an ad post every now and again. I mean, you are selling a business here. Just spread them out over a couple posts. And unless you work at a place that is really jamming, you’ll need to use both techniques, and maybe a few you figure out on your own.

Here’s my question for the week. What would you like me to talk about next time? You tell me, I’ll talk about it, even if I have to pull the Guerilla Chefe out to answer it. Preference goes to questions about writing. Hey, I know writing, what do you expect? See you next time, Guerilleros!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

How to Get People to Read!(At Least a Little)

GuerillaRoberto — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:02:25 +0000

Hello Guerilleros! Today I want to share a variety of content tips. These may be basic to some of you, but hey, we get new people coming to the site everyday, and they might not know this. I had to learn it, and so did you.

Apparently no one actually READS anything online, they scan it for content, and just read things that catch their eye. Except for my faithful Guerilleros, you guys read every word of these posts, right? Right?!

Since people are only reading what catches their eye, you need to make sure you draw attention to what you want people to be sure to read. How?

Write it in big letters!

You probably saw that before you even actually read that far. Now there are two ways to look at this. Either put what you want to make sure people read in the big letters, or, and this is a trick I use sparingly, make it kind of obscure.

What? Don’t make it clear? Well, here’s where a little knowledge of psychology is useful. People are curious. If they see big words, telling them something that seems a little random, they are more likely to read the surrounding info to see why you capitalized it. This gets them to read even more than just the words in big letters. But if you over do it, they will get frustrated, and not read any of what you wrote.

Another trick is to use bold letters. Again, the eye is naturally drawn to things that stick out. Bold letters certainly do. They also add emphasis to your writing, such as what I did in my last paragraph with the word “why”. And again, the obscure trick works here too. People read more of the surrounding content to see why that one particular word or phrase is bold.

One more trick I’ll share is using bullets. Bullets have several uses.

They also draw attention
They present your info in a clear manner
They allow you to make several points with out all the damn commas
They make people think your presenting a lot of info
They allow you to summarize all your important info so hopefully they’ll read it in the bulleted list

Again though, don’t over do it. Maybe one bulleted list for every 250 words or so.Also, don’t get crazy on the length of the list. Five bullets, maybe six. Otherwise people just start scanning the list.

Your bestbet is to combine all three, like I did in this post. You can even combine all three together for maximum eye draw. Here is an example”

Tips to get people to actually read what you wrote!

Write in big letters!- People are drawn to them.
Use the bold key!- Use it to draw the eye, or for emphasis.
Bullets, bullets, bullets!- Present your info in a neat and orderly manner.
I didn’t give a fourth tip!- Bulleted lists are kind of pointless if you only put three things on it.

See? Did you read this whole article or just the things I drew attention to?Here Are Some Similar Posts:

Can Social Media Work For Chiropractic Too?

GuerillaRoberto — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 01:28:09 +0000

The origins of chiropractics?

Hello Guerilleros! So much for the consistency I promised last week, huh? But here we are again today! And today, instead of giving you a specific tip, I am bringing you a rather unique resource I found while searching for some ideas for one of my clients. A whole website devoted to using social media, specifically for chiropractors.

The site is full of interesting info tailored to help chiropractors use social media for promoting their business. In a recent post, he even gave examples of iPhone apps that could be used. All for chiropractors.

Obviously, if you have a chiropractor for a client, this website is extremely useful to you. You can thank me and we’ll see you next time. If you don’t have a chiropractor for a client, which is probably most of you, you may be thinking I just found an easy way out of doing a quality post. Here’s a great example of a chiropractor in the Outer Banks that is using social media very effectively.

Well, your wrong. this site has tons of great ideas that would really fit into any business. Replace the word “chiropractor” with the word “pizza store” and BAM! instant help. But even more intriguing is the fact that this person devotes his whole site to chiropractic social media. Is it smart to provide social media for only one profession?We’ll ignore the fact that he IS a chiropractor.

I say if you can get enough clients that are not in competition with each other, go for it. A large part of my clientele is based around Jiu Jitsu. (Imagine that, guerilleros.) I had only the vaguest idea of what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was when I started writing for my first client, who happened to be a Jiu Jitsu organization. And through a little rapid learning and a lot of some help from the Guerilla Chefe, I quickly learned enough to write about it, and picked up several more Jiu Jitsu accounts nationwide.

However, none of them are in competition with one another. They are all located in different parts of the country. This is of great benefit to me, because it allows me to use the same posts on their respective Facebook pages, and use similar items on their blogs, saving me time. Notice I said similar, not the same. I never recycle content. But I will use the same concept for more than one piece.

So if you can specialize, it can save you some time and effort, allowing you to take on even more work! And that’s what it’s all about right?

Oh, and I now practice Jiu Jitsu with the Guerilla Chefe.Here Are Some Similar Posts:

A Change Has Come…

GuerillaRoberto — Sun, 23 May 2010 03:16:12 +0000

I am a writer by trade.

Hello Guerilleros. I am Guerilla Roberto. As you are probably aware, the site hasn’t been updated much lately. Unfortunately for us, but fortunate for him, our Guerilla Chefe has been overwhelmed lately with new projects that are sucking up all of his time.

As a result of this social media frenzy, I have been asked to step in and take over for awhile. And for my first post, I will just introduce myself. Next week we will serve up a new tip or trick from the mouth of the Guerilla Chefe himself.

I am not exactly a social media guru, I am a writer. Hence I will now be writing this blog. As a friend and co-worker of the Guerilla Chefe, I have unwittingly been involved in the chaos that is social media marketing. So far, it has been very good to me, and I hope to share some of the things I have learned along the way. I hope you all enjoy my style as much as you do our Guerilla Chefe.

And while I don’t know what the future holds, I do know the revolution hasn’t ended. In fact, we’re just entering a new phase. From now on, this site will be updated every week at least once. That’s right, we’re bringing some consistency to the site (and some better grammar!)

And for my final parting shot, how many of you can say Guerilleros out loud, with the correct pronunciation? That’s a tongue twister!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

How To Create Customized Facebook Fan Pages With FBML

guerilla — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:35:10 +0000

Guerilleros, I’m sure by now you have a Facebook Fan Page. If you dont, then you’re really behind in the game.

A Fan page is the most flexible application for business on Facebook, it allows you to integrate it to your wordpress blog, to twitter, and even to Youtube.

But showing visitors your “wall” may not be the best practice for business, since you have to change that message constantly. Today, I’ll show you how to create a unique landing page for Facebook using FBML.

1. On Facebook, search for Static FBML

The Static FBML Application on Facebook

You’ll find the application page. Look over on the LEFT UPPER corner, right below the logo.

2. Click on “Add To My Page”

Add To My Page On Static FBML

3. Pick A Page

Pick A Page To Show Static FBML

That’s it – you’ve installed the application on your Fan Page. Now, let’s get it to work!

Make sure you’re logged in as the page admin. Visit your page and then click on Edit Page.

4. Find the Static FBML App

FBML application for facebok fan pages

5. Edit The Page

Warning – you’ll need some HTML knowledge to edit the page. Leave me a comment if you need some help with that.

Click on edit and you’ll see this:

FBML page Set Up

6. Add The FBML Page To Your Fan Page Tabs

Back on the “Edit Page” screen, find the FBML application and click on “Permissions”. The screen below will appear:

Add the FBML as a TAB

Make sure that both box and tab say ADDED, which means that there’s a navigation tab just for the new page you created within your regular Facebook Fan Page.

That’s it! Feel free to leave me any questions or suggestions on the comments.

Your guerilla is my guerilla!

P.S – Tomorrow I’ll show you how to make sure your visitors land on the new page you’ve created instead of the regular wall! Stay tuned.Here Are Some Similar Posts:

What To Do With Your Social Media Traffic?

guerilla — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:33:00 +0000

Why Is Social Media Traffic So Confusing?

Guerilleros, if you’ve listened to interview I had with Marnie Swedberg about Social Media Marketing for Local Audiences, you’re probably already applying some of the tips I shared and creating more exposure (read web traffic) to your brand.

Now, what are you going to do with that?

The biggest point I wanted to make clear was the fact that Social Media is not about you OR your company – the focus is on your Customer, or better yet, on that person that you’ve just met that MAY or may not become your customer.

Since I’m sure you’ve already understood that, being the great guerilleros(as) that you are, you should also know that if you send your newly generated social media traffic to a corporate-looking website, you’re losing the boat.

Keeping The Traffic (And The Conversation) Alive

When people see your activity on Facebook or Twitter, or they become interested in your content on Digg, they’re engaging that conversation you created – whether by posting helpful information, or a cool video, or simply sharing exciting news, those visitors ended up on your site because you connected with them.

If you send them straight to a site with cookie-cutter copy that talks continuously about your company, you’re completely ignoring that conversation and forcing them to swallow the same old commercial pill we’re tired of seeing on TV and Radio.

Become A WordPress Fanatic

That’s where a blog comes in ultra handy – I’ve mentioned before that WordPress is to Social Guerilla what GPS is to a country driver in Manhattan, and that’s one of the reasons why.

Let me make it extra clear by painting you a picture:

You’ve paid somebody like me to create a cool video, post it on an optimized Youtube profile, and you’re getting good hits.

When they click on the link right next to the video and land on your site, they see a blog post talking about the video, along with 5 other related posts and even more videos.

At the end of each post, you add a compelling, but gentle, call to action: “Like these cooking tips? Sign up now and get a 40% discount at our next cooking class”

The difference is that once they came to the site, their experience with the video was extended by the blog posts, and then the call to action came in for an attractive ending (which begins the real sales funnel).

If you haven’t gotten a blog started yet – what’re you waiting for? What’s your biggest obstacle?

———–

If you’d like to know more about generating traffic through social media, there’s a new web marketing guerilla course coming up on March 18th that I highly recommend: Traffic UltimatumHere Are Some Similar Posts:

How To Engage Local Audiences With Social Media Marketing

guerilla — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:58:44 +0000

pinpoint your social media marketing to your local audience

It’s with an immense pleasure that I invite all of you guerilleros and guerilleras to join me in a great run-through of Social Media Marketing strategies geared for local businesses.

I’ll be at a BlogTalkRadio show on Thursday afternoon with Marnie Swedberg and you’re in for a real treat.

Here are the details:

When: Thursday 02/25
Time: 4:00pm
Call-in #: (646) 727-2510
Address:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marniesfriends/2010/02/25/engage-your-local-audience-with-social-mediasm

As you’re very much aware, Social Media has no borders or boundaries, and despite its wonderful benefits, connecting with your neighbors online has always been somewhat of a challenge.

Mentor Marnie

Marnie Swedberg is a community leader, mom, brick & mortar and online entrepreneur that hosts a popular radio show on BlogTalkRadio. She’s the utmost definition of a successful Guerillera.

However, even a guerillera such as Marnie has her issues dealing with a local audience – she owns a restaurant and wants to reach her community via Social Media.

Based on that, here’s what you’ll be learning at the interview:

How To Set Realistic Goals
What Exactly Can You Blog About To Motivate Community Engagement
The Difference Between Social Networking & Social Media Marketing (And why most business owners get it all wrong)
The Most Suitable Platforms For Local Businesses (Hint: You’re probably already on it!)
How To Integrate Blog, Facebook, Twitter To Minimize Your Efforts And Maximize Your Exposure
A Tool That Lists Every Known Twitter account In Your Area
And The Best (And Free) Way To Track Your Results

If I’m missing anything, let me know. Post a comment here with your question or shoot me a reply over @leosaraceni.

See you there!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

Is The Dell Outlet Twitter Campaign Success Duplicable?

guerilla — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:43:50 +0000

Dell Outlet Twitter Campaign Duplicable???

Guerilleros, my sincere apologies for completely abandoning this community for almost 3 months. Hopefully you were able to survive without my guerilla tips

In fact, from the Feedburner notifications I’ve been receiving, traffic to the SMGuerilla was not badly damaged. So let’s address that right now.

Recycling Ideas Make Them Fresh?

No, of course not – just like Recyclables are still trash, despite their higher value. But a wise man once said that there are no original ideas, so I’m putting my recycled Guerilla strategy to the test.

I’m sure you heard about the impressive success that @DellOutlet generated: over $2 million in sales from Twitter alone.

Great, huh?

Here’s the challenge

Can the same be done for an Online Fashion Boutique?

I’ve created an @Outlet account for them and fired up all of the inventory they had put aside for “liquidation”.

The next step was to create a special coupon (in this case, tweet10) to serve two purposes:

1 – Tracking (of course, Analytics helps too)

2 – Exclusivity (only followers have access to these great deals).

Here’s where things go a little South:

The company prefers their sales staff focused on “more important things than Twitter”.

Can Twitter create revenue?

Is Twitter A New Sales Platform?

The real reason behind Dell’s success was that they had a real person tweeting, interacting, and actually performing extensive customer service work. They shifted the focus off Dell and started retweeting quotes, participating on #followfriday, and answering @replies.

But is it the real reason? Or was Dell simply the 1st big corporation to try such strategy and benefit off of novelty?

Here’s where my guerilla suspicions come from:

None of the deals were actually that much cheaper or exclusive
Dell.com/outlet existed prior to the twitter account

Our Strategy

While the sales staff is focused on more important stuff, and since they’ve paid me for all the work upfront, I decided to run without them.

My software is updating their outlet account with offers every 10-15 min -
All offers point straight to the final sales page with that specific item on display.
We go in once or twice a day to check for @replies.

Here are the stats after 10 days of campaign:

114 Visits from Twitter.com
69 followers (as of 2/17 at 12:35am)

Considering their usual traffic source is PPC, 114 visits would cost $45.6 (at a cheap $.40 bid).

So even if the campaign turns out less than ideal, they’re at least looking at a cheaper traffic source.

What about you?

What do you think it’s going to happen to this automated Twitter sales process?

Leave your comments!!!Here Are Some Similar Posts: