Posts Tagged ‘comments’
Using Technorati to Find Blogs About You
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on January 26th, 2012
Today, bloggers are a main source of news for millions of readers. Their articles are typically better researched, more detailed, and more honest than newspaper or magazine articles. They may also be completely false, as bloggers do not fall under the same editorial scrutiny that media must comply with.
When something negative is said about your company through a blog, you may not find out about it until it has spread virally, doing extensive damage to your image, even if the information is not true. To combat this, you can use technology to keep an eye on what is being written about you and your company.
Technorati is a search engine designed specifically to search for blogs on the Internet using three types of searches: 1) keywords, 2) tags, and 3) blog directory.
Technorati also provides tools that allow you to keep on top of blog posts for specific subjects.
Here’s a small guide to keeping an eye on your business:
Search for your company on Technorati
Finding blogs that already contain some reference to your company can give you a rare look into your customers’ minds. People used to pay top dollar for market research that would take weeks to access this priceless information. Now you can see firsthand what your customers are saying, in real time.
Stay on top of your “social footprint”
Technorati allows you to save your searches as “watchlists.” Watchlists may be viewed in RSS format, which means they may be imported into an RSS reader to make it very easy to consistently keep track of who is writing about your company.
What do you do when you locate something?
When you find a blog that mentions your company, leave a comment on their blog. This lets them know that you respect them writing about you. If the post was negative, it also shows that real people from your company are reading what they’ve written, and are savvy enough to respond to it. Bloggers are almost always more cordial and less likely to be critical if they know they are being read by the person they are criticizing.
When someone writes something negative about you, it’s important to read all the comments before responding. You may find that a fan of your company has already defended you nicely and an “official” response may not be necessary. This happens more often than not, which is one of the biggest perks of today’s social media.
Have you ever had negative comments or reviews on your company’s social profiles? How did you handle it?
The Art of the Testimonial
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing on May 5th, 2011
What is one of the biggest shifts in today’s advertising paradigm? Real reviews from real clients are far superior to the best marketing copy in the world.
BUT… the second piece to this paradigm is that good reviews create no value for you if you can’t put them in front of prospective clients.
How do you get great reviews?
Ask for them.
Loyal and satisfied clients are glad to give you a review or testimonial, but they won’t think to do it without prompting. In addition to simply asking, you can also have a feedback form prominently placed on your website. Make it easy for people to share their thoughts with you and you’ll get a lot in return.
Important: Make sure you get permission to use testimonials and positive comments on your website or in your marketing materials. Again, if you simply ask, most people are more than happy to help. It’s also good to ask how they would like their name to appear after the quote; do they want initials only? Full name with title? Company and website?
Anytime you get a positive comment or even thank you email, you can turn around and thank the person and then ask if you can quote them for your website (or where you want to use it). DO NOT IGNORE THIS STEP – it could very well come back to haunt you if you do.
What do you do with your collection of testimonials?
Put them where your potential clients will see them! On your homepage, your sales page, and in your newsletters. Occasionally scatter them in your social media messages. Be creative with them! Just be sure to make them relevant to the message they are sharing space with. If your testimonial is about going above and beyond, don’t pair it with a former client list or price breaks and specials.
Don’t forget the obvious – find positive words about your company on others’ blogs, Twitter, discussion forums, and popular online review sites, such as Kudzu.com, Google, and free websites relating to your niche.
Are You Getting Tumbleweeds on Your Blog Posts?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on January 31st, 2012
Even though you may contact all of the top players in your industry pointing them to the post, no links come back to you. No replies from those you emailed. You receive hardly any clicks on your post.
Your posts are skillfully crafted and offer a great angle. So why isn’t anyone reading them?
Is content really king like everyone says? We are led to believe that if we produce a truly great piece of content, we’ll get all the links we could ever hope for.
That used to be the case! The Web used to be a fairly uncluttered place compared to what it is now, and it was easier for people to notice great blog posts.
And now?
Now great is no longer good enough. There really is so much remarkable content that bloggers don’t have enough time to read it all, much less link to it.
If you want links now, you need to be more than great. You need to be connected.
It’s not what you know… it’s…
…who you know. Sort of. Bloggers link more often to their friends than anyone else. If you write a reasonably good piece of content that interests their audience, they’ll link to you, mainly because they like you.
The secret to building a popular blog isn’t just writing great content. It’s also having well-connected friends.
How do you get connected? Here are a few ideas to get started:
The biggest key is finding ways that you can be genuinely useful to others in your industry; make yourself relevant and then use that opportunity to start building a relationship.
Tags: Blog, blogging, comments, connections, content, experts, LinkedIn, niche marketing
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