Just a couple of quick announcements:
1. I’ve put together an article for those of you readers who haven’t gotten started blogging yet: Getting Started Blogging (and Branding)
2. I’ll be teaching 1/4 of a new two day course called Slingshot Seminars targeted to the needs of small businesses. Think of it as a two day boot camp to sharpen your skills and gain new insights. This is a collaboration between my company, Equation Arts, along with Hunter Chatman Communications and The WallStreet Athletic Group. I’ll be teaching the morning session on the 2nd day, which will focus on branding of course. Find out more and register at SlingshotSeminars.com.
Barcamp 2 – How to get buzz without being a scumbag spammer
Wow! A Barcamp topic with marketing appeal.
Yes, I’m still furiously tyoping this out live at Barcamp. This is not a marketing event, it is targeted to developers and technologists, but hey sometimes world’s collide (in a good way).
Moderator is Micah Wedemeyer – hacker not marketer. Has a couple of startups.
Assumptions from the moderator going in:
-you’re promoting a website
-your site is actually useful
-your marketing budget is small or non-existent
-maybe you’ve been accused of spamming before
Marketing is real work! (amen brother)
It won’t happen overnight
Time is your resource and you’ll spend a lot of it – think about you ROT – return on time.
Identify your taerget audience – be as specific as you can – the more qualifiers the better.
Smaller the target – easier to hit.
If you don’t know – ask your user “who are you?” Get the info to guide your focus.
Find the bloggers – where does your community hang out online. Bookmark the relevant sites about your community. Read the comments – check out the sites. Try to find at least 20 blogs relevant to your community (more if you can manage the time) Add them all to you RSS reader and check it constantly! be on top of the timing – timing is everything.
Engage in the community – be a part of the community. Start your own blog. Keep your blog content to information relevant to your community. Suggestion to hang your blog off you main domain — generally I think this is a good idea, but there are some disadvantages.
Set up a reasonable goal – a reasonable pace for how frequently you will post. Bloggers share two things – egos and writers block! (love that comment!)
Get involved and comment on people’s blogs. Commenting first gets more readers.
Give yourself a “Gravatar” – basically a picture that gets associated with your email address so your picture (a logo, your face, etc) is put next to your comment – builds your brand awareness. Reinforces Recognition.
Decide your identity when your commenting – are you you? or are you the company rep?
Link to your site from your name. Add relevance to the conversation you are participating in.
If you write an analysis about someone else’s post always include the Trackback url. This lets the other author know that you have written about his/her post and they will most likely check out what you wrote. Add value – don’t just regurgitate what they wrote.
Curing writer’s block – contact the other blogger and ask for a write up. Use their preferred contact method. Ask, don’t beg (or hound). Don’t oversell it.
Bloggers are powerful – getting buzz can be helped by getting in their good graces, but don’t abuse them or you will suffer a backlash and/or shut-out.