Count Your Blessings

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Consider Making a Donation

We have all been glued to the television over the last week as nature has ravaged Japan and several other places in the world causing death, injury and homelessness.  I look around at my life and feel so very blessed. Oh, maybe I wish I had more this or that or wish I didn’t have to deal with him or her but in truth, I am blessed beyond measure.

And I bet you feel the same.

So I thought I would just make it easy for you in case you felt inclined to donate to the Japanese relief efforts or something a little closer to home. You’ll see that I’ve added a widget over to the right with the American Red Cross logo.  It isn’t an affiliate – I don’t get a commission – there isn’t any connection other than making it easy for my dear readers to donate, should you feel inclined.

Click on the logo and it takes you to the donation page of the Red Cross website and there you can select which effort you’d like to support.

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Blogging Question for a Website Writer

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Not long ago I was on a panel talking about blogging for business.  We asked the attendees to write down their questions and our presentation basically consisted of answering the questions.  Here is one of the questions I am asked frequently:

Other than SEO and building brand awareness, how does a corporate blog benefit a business?

As a customer relationship specialist, I view blogs as a perfect opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise and to engage your audience in conversation. Most blogs share an opinion or raise a question which invites the reader to agree or disagree.  Your website is written as a corporate marketing piece – polished and formal.  Information shared without an opportunity to interact.

A blog is written in a more personal voice, it is topical, current, sometimes controversial but always a open door for customers and prospects to comment.

The most successful blogs are timely and informative – not just sales messages that drive traffic back to your website. Website writers understand the value of well written web content, but also the importnace of that personal connection in a blog. Two different types of writing style.

Chris Brown was on our radio show Us Media Radio back in November and her episode continues to be the one most listened to.  You can stream the broadcast on your tuner right now or download and listen to it on your iPod, but listen to Chris talk about the benefits of blogging for business.  She is the writer and publisher of one of the most popular marketing blogs Branding and Marketing and currently has almost 9,000 subscribers tuning in to see what she has to say each week. 

I invite you to listen to her interview and check out her blog. It is packed – jam packed – with valuable insights, tips, tools and strategies for marketing your business. 

Listen to internet radio with US Media on Blog Talk Radio
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7 Social Media Secrets that Build Awareness

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

I was recently asked to speak to a group of women business owners – I was given 25 minutes and I needed to talk about social media. The most talked about and yet rarely understood topic that is on the lips of every business professional and entrepreneur.

Most say – I hear about it, I know I need to do something about it, but it just seems like a big waste of time.

Yep. Unless you have a plan. But that is another workshop I present.

I needed to talk quick and give the women something they could use that afternoon to help their business. Just like you, I have listened to podcasts, signed up for webinars, read e-books and articles and from that I picked these seven quick secrets that you can do this afternoon to help build awareness and help you to connect with customers:

  1. Get on the first page of LinkedIn for the key words in your industry.  It isn’t as hard as you might think
  2. Share your important LinkedIn status updates with thousands, not just your contacts.
  3. Actually read that weekly email that comes from Linked In with your contact’s status updates and then send a message of acknowledgement to a few of them
  4. Grow your Twitter follows and engage in conversatoin
  5. Make sure your last Tweet of the day includes a link to your website
  6. Schedule social media activities into your every day calendar – it can be 15 minutes each day – you can get a lot done in 15 minutes
  7. Create a strategy by answering this question:  What do you want to accomplish with social media?

Here is the handout that I provide for the 7 social media secrets that build awareness  By the way – you’ll see a screen print of my Twitter followers at the time I did the presentation – about 850. In less than 10 days, after following the tips on my handout – I had 1500.  FYI – I hand pick those I follow – I’m not interested in high numbers of followers, I’m more interested in following and having followers that are kindred spirits. 

Interested in learning all of the great stories and details that go with this presenation? Give me a buzz – I’d love to present to your company or organization.  330-414-8792.

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Build a Business Community with Squidoo

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Squidoo logoI belong to the Akron Blogging Community – a group of bloggers and social media enthusiasts who meet monthly to share their challenges and new learns with social media. Recently our co-founder, Chris Brown, developed a  Squidoo Lens (landing page with a specific niche topic) for the group.

Akron Blogging Community Squidoo

Why?

  • In one place we have a landing page that lists all of the members
  • Each member can mention and link to their blog and/or website
  • This creates an inbound link to their site – Google likes this!
  • One page with all of the resources makes it easy for visitors to find us

Squidoo is free and easy to set up. You can add a blog, RSS feeds, video and advertisement all around a single topic. It is just one more page with your information. Here is an article offering the benefits of using a squidoo lens - check it out.

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Top Four Priorities When Writing Websites

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown
Leslie Carruthers of Search Guru

Leslie Carruthers of Search Guru

Leslie Carruthers of Search Guru was a speaker at the Make Money While You Sleep conference and as I’ve previously mentioned, she spoke to the value of doing your keyword research when writing websites, but that is just one of the four top priorities to consider.

“If you want to help your website improve its organic search results, you need to do four things,” said Carruthers. The four things were:

  1. Key word research – don’t assume you know the words prospects are using to find you – do the research
  2. Use key words in your Title tags – the words that appear at the top of the screen when someone lands on each of your website pages – the search engines look for these words – make sure you use geographic terms (Ohio, Midwest, Phoenix, Gold Coast, etc.) and in your headlines and hyperlinked text (those words that are linked to take readers to another location or file).
  3. Use Headline tags – not just bolded text but Html coded headline text with your key words to start each paragraph. 

Website Writers Use Key Words in Their Headlines

The code for headlines like the one above is <h1> before the text and </h1> after the text.

4.  Write great content. You can try all the supposed tricks to help your organic search results but at the end of the day, you have to write great website content if you want to capture the readers attention.  

Think about the websites that attract your attention – better yet, think of the ones that lose you at “hello.” How are they set up? What words do they use? Do they use any words or just pictures? Is there a call to action? We’ll talk about call to action in  another post but for now, your marching orders are as follows:

  • Assess your website for the four priorities listed above – does your website need improvement?
  • Consider partnering with a professional website writer that can help you by writing great website content
  • Or begin the process yourself of assessing each page for the four priorities and tackling them one at a time
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Press Releases by Website Writers

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

It used to be that press releases were written when a business opened, closed or added a product. The release was mailed with a complete media kit to the editor of choice and you crossed your fingers that it didn’t end up in the circular file.

Those days are over. Press releases can be powerful tools that keep your name and the value you provide in front of existing and prospective customers. David Meerman Scott wrote a free e-book several years ago entitled the New Rules of PR  in which he outlined some of the additional ways press releases could be used.

Joan Stewart, owner of Publicity Hound put together 89 reasons to write a press release.  Joan helps PR people develop strong relationships with the print, broadcast and Internet media. Click Here to take a look.

Website writers now understand the value of taking the press release and re-purposing them as fresh and compelling website content either by including them on a company’s website and/or using the content as blog fodder or social media status updates.

When was the last time you wrote a press release about your business?  If you say more than a month – then you are over due. Plan to write a release once a month. That’s 12 times a year that you can keep your name in front prospects! 

Consider using a professional website writer or marketing writer to help you. Not only do we have experience and understand the  many ways press release content can provide value for your business – we can also take it off your “to do” list. Why add something to your task list that just gets buried on your desk and never done when AllWrite Ink is here to help?

Call me – Deborah – 330-414-8792.  Let me get your name in front of prospects.

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Writing Great Website Content Requires Keyword Research

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

At a recent conference sponsored by Norma Rist of Women Owners Daily, entitled Make Money While You Sleep, several presenters offered great information on search engine optimization, key words, writing words people read and using social media to connect with customers. When asked for one of the lessons I learned during the day, I had this to say:

Leslie Carruthers of Search Guru was the sage and expert that made a point of reminding attendees that you can’t go by your gut feel when determining the right key words when writing websites. Great advice.  I just signed up for Wordtracker and have begun to enjoy their free training videos that accompany any new membership.

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AllWrite Ink New Writing Websites Design Goes Live

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Thanks to Crystal Pirri, pictured here, for all her help with making this new site design come to life. Although my prior site served me well for over five years, it was time for a change. I had several objectives with my new writing websites design:

  • Move it from a hosted site with another company to a self hosted platform so I’d have more control
  • Incorporate my Wordpress blog
  • Have contact information and social share links clearly visible so people wouldn’t have to hunt to figure out how to find me
  • Include video
  • Be cleaner and easier from a functionality perspective
  • Focus on writing great website content – and dividing the information into more focused messaging
  • Incorporate landing page content for additional URL addresses that I had purchased to assist in search results

Here is a screen capture of the old design:

Any thoughts – comments – suggestions?

When you visit a website, what is the most important thing you look for? Writing great website content requires an understanding of the person you hope will visit and stay – but images and functionality also play a role. I welcome your thoughts.

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Do You Tweet?

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

Celebrities do it.
Politicians do it.
Business owners do it.
Do you tweet?
They say that Facebook are the people you knew, LinkedIn are the people you know and Tweeple (People on Twitter) are the people you need to know. Well, what happens if you find yourself unable to tweet for one reason or another; broken thumbs, cell phone falls in a puddle….. You’ll find that you can relate to this new definition:

TWEE • TOX (verb) to go through TWITTER withdrawal

Do you have any fun definitions for Twitter? Here is a list of 275 Twitter applications.

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How Do You Make Something Go Viral?

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Deborah Chaddock Brown

The question of the day. With YouTube now second only to Google as a search tool, more and more companies are looking to add video to their marketing strategy.

But how do you get people to watch – that is, people other than friends and family?

Michael Terpin, founder and CEO of Social Radius was recently quoted in an article in Entrepreneur Magazine called “OMG – Check it out!”

Sound familiar -have you received texts or emails that say the same thing followed by a link to a YouTube video? Just today on Twitter someone was talking about the Prank Wars on College Humor site.

Terpin says you don’t need a big budget to create a YouTube sensation, just a two-minute-or-less short that is funny, inspirational and–above all–decently produced.

That little sentence is really important – be short – be funny – be well produced.

Steve Strauss wrote an article this year offering 7 Steps to Creating a Viral Video.

Steve offers advice for creating buzz about your video:

·      Blast an email out to your list. Link the video and recommend that people watch it and forward it.

·      Tweet about it. Embed it and share it on Facebook. Ask friends on Facebook and Twitter to share it. Digg it. You know the drill.

·      Put it on your homepage

·      Embed it into your blog and blog about it on your site.

·      Try and get other bloggers, high profile bloggers, to blog about it. Some folks even pay bloggers to embed it and blog about it.

·      Go to relevant forums, post it, recommend it, and start threads about it.

Of course it comes down to your message the community you have built. Terpin goes on to advise:

When you’re ready to seed your material, mine your social networks for both the “right” people and those who are connected to them. And, of course, tweet, Facebook and e-mail away, asking friends to pass it along. But make sure your video is actually good before you do.

He also cautions that the video should be good – you don’t want to associate your brand with junk.

This next Tuesday on Us Media Radio, we’ll be having Deb Shapiro of Montrose Video who will be talking to us about video marketing. You might want to put this show on your calendar – 10am est Tuesday, November 23, 2010.

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