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Soulati-'TUDE!

New Blogging Tips Book by Jayme @Soulati

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Photo Credit: Jayme Soulati via iPhone 4S on AA flight to LA

On this blog since its start in March 2010, the topic of blogging has been a favorite of its author, Jayme Soulati. When it became time to look toward business development and making digital marketing a priority, Jayme pulled three years of blog posts about blogging from the archives and fashioned her first book.

by Jayme Soulati is now available for advance sale. The hard-copy easy-to-digest book is 130 pages featuring eight chapters, takeaways, teachings, notes, and #RockHot tips. The blog posts Jayme selected are original and remain live on her blog, Soulati-‘TUDE!

Members of this community are included in the book by name and often by blog post. Anyone featured in original posts remain in the content and thus the book. Where applicable, “Jayme Notes” update the original content.

Why Write a Blogging Book

The impetus for the book came from the desire to craft an e-book as content for business development. Upon seeing the plethora of posts Jayme wrote about her own blogging journey, she knew it had to be a true, printed book.

When bloggers launch their journey into blogging, there is intense pressure to be successful right away. So many books on the topic are oriented to monetizing a blog; this book is not about that. Jayme shares true passion for blogging with tips about the basics — voice, community, content, inspiration, the echo chamber, and the back end. The book is easy to read and written in her always personable style.

A blog is one of the most important aspects of social media. It is owned media — you write and control and own the message. Putting people on the right path to becoming an authority and influencer begins with a blog that resonates with authority and influence.

Self-Publishing

Jayme selected a regional press to assist in her publishing experience, one that did much of the legwork she didn’t wish to do. David Braughler of Greyden Press in Dayton/Cincinnati was extremely responsive and helpful throughout the self-publishing experience.

She used the free book template from Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch to put her manuscript into layout. When Guy and Shawn wrote and published , they invited people to download their template in exchange for a tweet on the book.

and Jayme invites your feedback, comments and review of her first title in a business book series.

Who Should Buy

One of the frequently mentioned tips Jayme offers in Writing with Verve on the Blogging Journey is to stay the course for 12 months before making changes.

She recommends that these folks consider getting a copy:

  • Anyone interested or planning to blog
  • Anyone on the blogging journey less than 12 months
  • Any blogger writing more than 12 months
  • Any corporate blogger wanting a few tips to infuse energy in a blog
  • Students and friends

 

 

 

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Social Media Conferences: Go, Gather, Gab, Gush

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This is a short and simple shout out to all you social media peeps sitting at home or in the cube with lack of energy.

I encourage you to register right now for the New South Digital Marketing Conference.

This shindig takes place May 17, 2013 in Myrtle Beach, SC, and presenters the likes of Jay Baer (that guy gets around, doesn’t he?)  and…you better watch the video to see who else is speaking!

On a final note, social media conferences are #RockHot…you have to attend 1-2 annually to get the mojo up and at ’em!

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The Basics Of Corporate Blogging

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English: This icon, known as the "feed ic...

English: This icon, known as the “feed icon” or the “RSS icon”, was introduced in Mozilla Firefox in order to indicate a web feed was present on a particular web page that could be used in conjunction with the Live bookmarks function. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera and some other browsers have adopted the icon in order to promote a de facto standard. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are many many reference sources on how corporate blogs become successful. At the end of the day, companies need to realize that behind every blog is a person.

People write blogs, and people read blogs.

When a company is writing a blog, there are basic elements to consider. These stand true for a brand new blog in planning and strategy phases or an existing blog with six months under the belt.

Tips for Successful Corporate Blogging

Team and Tone. When blogging for the company, ensure the team is solid. Typically, there are three good writers to assist with the company blog and one good editor to establish tone. It becomes apparent when someone writes drastically differently than peers on the company blog. Try to ensure there’s a solid thread between each writer so tone isn’t a swinging pendulum.

Topics. Company blogging runs the risk of being inside-out only. If a goal is to build a community of those who comment and follow, then be sure topics are engaging and invite others to connect and participate. If a corporate blog posts three times weekly, make sure 1/3 of the content is about external factors shaping the industry.

Goals. Like any new program, there needs to be clearly defined goals. Without that distinct purpose and consistent reference back to the goals, a corporate blog can go astray. Do not take goal setting lightly! This exercise drives success, growth, authority, and brand positioning.

Analytics. Behind every successful blog is a person and also good tracking! Without knowledge of how many people are visiting a company blog, there is no proof it’s working. Typically, companies cannot gauge success of a blog on comments alone; people lurk and refuse to add thoughts on a corporation’s blog. This means analytics are critical and someone to interpret them even more.

Bells and Whistles. There are basic elements every blog needs regardless of whether it’s a personal or business blog. Set up a decent commenting system with Livefyre or Disqus. Use Shareaholic, the best social media sharing tool on the channels. Add a way to organize archives  via categories and chronology via widgets in the sidebar. Consider Zemanta which helps put other like-topics at the blogger’s fingertips to share beneath a post. Use images owned by the company. There are so many issues now with copyrights; companies need to develop their own image library for use online everywhere.

RSS and Social Media Follows. Regardless of how small a company blog is when it starts, having an RSS feed (Feedblitz is reliable) as well as social media follow buttons are critical. Every company has a LinkedIn page and ought to have a Google+ page, too. Start there and the rest will follow.

Subscribe Button. Capturing emails is the name of the game, but what will you offer in return? If people know they’ll get some decent content either on the blog or via a newsletter or other marketing collateral, they will give up their email address. Company blogs need to have this option readily available from the start. Little bit late to the party? No worries…add it and write!

SEO Pack. Blogs need to ensure articles are depicted appropriately and headlines aren’t too long. Using SEO Pack or Yoast are simple plugins to help streamline this without too much thought.

Which basic elements does your company blog have? Please share!

About Jayme Soulati

Jayme Soulati is author of Soulati-‘TUDE! which is a professional blog oriented to social media, marketing, PR, business strategy, and more. She is president of Soulati Media, Inc. and is an award-winning blogger and public relations practitioner. She is a past president of the Publicity Club of Chicago.

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Why Responsive Design Is A Must in 2013

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Like the new digs? Open up on your smart device and see why responsive design for your website is a critical must have in 2013. What’s the stat? Oodles of peeps use smartphones and mobile devices to surf the net, and it’s only getting higher. (How’s thCalculateat for exact data to encourage your transition?)

There are websites that look good on a tablet; however, when you begin scrolling and navigating, the site really isn’t built for the small screen of an iPhone.

Going responsive means a few things:

  1. Your masthead has to fit snugly within the width of a smart device (regardless of its size). When someone logs in to the website, the masthead has to look normal; when they log in to a smart device, the masthead scales to fit and also pops on that smaller screen.
  2. The sidebar is invisible on a smart device. With a responsive theme on WordPress, the calls to action and badges and radio buttons stack up in the middle of the screen.  On the desktop, they appear off to the right as usual.
  3. Careful thinking has to be incorporated into a responsive theme. When designing a website in a content management system like WordPress with a custom theme or existing skin or template, you toss up the sidebar without a worry.  With a responsive approach, ordering of calls to action and what goes on the sidebar are mission critical.
  4. You need to engage with a developer who knows what the heck he or she is doing. There is way too much back-end tech required to push the engine of a website. Code is required for anything you do; a content marketer or social media pro cannot ever master all that code.
  5. You do need to understand what goes on behind the scenes of a website. Even when you’re publishing in content management systems and what you see visually on the dashboard is what appears live, the code is right there.
  6. Don’t get left in the cold; get your site responsive so when people begin to surf your site will feel more welcome than the other clunkier site with poor navigation and tremendously obnoxious scrolling.

Websites should always be updating; tweaks to sidebar, refresh of design/color and plug ins, navigation and share bars or comment systems. These are things most bloggers can update on their own, and should.

Afraid of tech like me? Embrace your fears and get your fingers dirty; that way you can better direct the show from the stage instead of in the wings.

 

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How Zemanta Pushes Blogger Link Love

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Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

A little-known blogger content curation and link-love plug in has taken me by storm, and since sharing is what I do, I want to let you in on the Zemanta secret.

Sign up is free for bloggers who use a variety of platforms to write. When you add your post to the WordPress dashboard, Zemanta populates suggested other posts from bloggers world-wide with content similar to yours.

In addition, you can use its image curation tool, too, although I’m less enthused about the quality/breadth of images that are free and without copyright issues.

 

Also part of the Zemanta suite are in-blog links and tags. I turned off the in-blog links — Zemanta was providing live links for words like Apple and Wikipedia and other general word choices and this didn’t appeal.

The tags, though, are usually spot on, and I welcome help on how to tag a blog post as I generally don’t put enough of them with the story.

Once you join the Zemanta network and add your blog(s) to your profile, then your own blog content will populate across the ‘sphere and other bloggers can include your posts in their work, too.

The very first day I used this service, I had no idea what to expect. I found someone’s bicycle-sharing post in NYC and included it; lo, the gentleman came over and actually stayed to comment awhile!  That was very cool.

You’ll see how Zemanta populates your blog with relevant stories YOU CHOOSE at the bottom of the story. It’s like adding another resource section to your writings and expanding peoples’ reading pleasure beyond your own material.

Customization 

Last night, I added about 15 bloggers I don’t like to miss to my Zemanta network. When this network writes on the topic I’m writing about, Zemanta will pull from these archives and curate content into “My Sources” in my dashboard.

I also looped my Instagram and Flickr accounts here, so my images are populating in the dashboard, too! Talk about efficient…love that, as I spend more time hunting for a decent image and get awfully lazy about it, too.

The good thing about Zemanta (beyond what I’ve already said) is that it’s all about choice; you can select what, when, if you’d like to use anyone else’s stuff. The best thing for me, is that it takes time away from finding links beyond the blogs I already hit to add link love. So, I’m jazzed right there about new sources populating right in my dashboard.

So, give it a whirl…What can go wrong?

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