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Context Marketing Is Newest Social Media Buzz

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light-bulb.jpgWhen you put a noun in front of “marketing,” you get a new trend, #RockHot topic and buzzword. I’ve said that in a blog post or two. It was bound to happen sooner or later – content marketing is being dethroned. Instead of content, insert “consumer.”

Consumer is king and content is queen.

We bloggers and content marketers are the royal subjects to none other than the king. In this case, that’s the consumer, our community, our followers, engagers, lurkers, subscribers, and readers.

It is our inherent duty to deliver relevant and remarkable content our king can use. When a consumer shares and comments on the content you create, then you’ve done your duty. You can remain in the monarchy.

I bet you’ve gotten bored with the “content is king” mantra, too. So, it was no surprise that “context” has become the latest trend on the ‘sphere.

What Is Context Marketing?

I am a HubSpot user; aiming for that digital marketing certificate to put a label on my educational investment this year. When you do inbound marketing, you first must know your buyer persona. Who is most likely to purchase your services or product? What are the demographics around them?

With that knowledge, you begin to feed appropriate content that matters to your prospects. Give them what they need at their doorstep.
• Use RSS feeds to deliver relevant blog posts.
• Build your email marketing list and develop solid content in newsletters.
• Engage at a higher level with even higher level professional content.
• Become the authority for your audience with remarkability.

You’re likely already doing context marketing. Now, you just need to be aware of its cognitive definition.

Give consumers what they need, in the best place at the right time.

Use EverPost To Influence Klout

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EverPost.jpgVia a LinkedIn group, a pitch came from someone I didn’t know asking for a review of EverPost.co. I let it sit and slide to the bottom of the priority list until a better time to find time.

About EverPost

To my utter delight, EverPost is the simplest tool I’ve come across for content shares of others’ material.

You register free with Twitter or Facebook.

Choose which channels you want to share on — either LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Select five categories of topics you’d like to follow.

Voila! A board appears with content from a variety of sites in the categories of topics you want to peruse.

Click share or auto-schedule, and your share is on its way to the channels you selected.

It’s so simple, and there’s a plethora of content at your fingertips to push out to the Interwebz.

Why I Love EverPost

  • Did I say it’s simple?
  • There is zero learning curve; sign up and go.
  • I do want to share good content without strings attached; this enables that.
  • I get to share a wide range of topics from one dashboard. If I get tired of posting content in one category, then I go back to the drop-down menu and select another after deleting one of my chosen five.
  • There are no comments from the dashboard; however, you can go to the blog and read the entire post before sharing (ahem, as you’re supposed to).
  • The tweets show up with the author’s Twitter ID; they can see that a new person is sharing their material.

Klout Is About Influence

Triberr, my fave blogger sharing platform (please ask to join my tribe!), is getting into the influence game. That means influence scoring is going to be more about the Klout number, too.

If you’re at all concerned about lots of shares to keep the Klout score high, then you need to use EverPost.

In about 10 minutes, you can share 20 blog posts. Yes, you can scan the post and vet it prior to sending, too.

I find it always a challenge to concern myself with keeping my Klout score high. I don’t have the ability to sit around on the Interwebz and share content all day. Were I to be able to, my influence score would be higher than it is now.

Perhaps I’m going to use EverPost every day this week to see if I can sustain a higher Klout score just so those numbers prove I’m really an influencer. LOL.

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Is A Blogger A Writer?

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What kind of merry-go-round are we on, folks?

The questions keep flying in circles:

  • Is a blogger a writer?
  • Is a blogger an author?
  • Is a blogger bona fide?
  • Should a journalist become a blogger?
  • Is a blogger a reporter?
  • Is a freelancer a consultant?
  • Should I write in the first person or third person if I’m one person?

OHMYGOSH, already!

Let’s set the record straight so everyone knows the following:

Bloggers are writers. They write every day they post an article. Sometimes the piece is short, sometimes it’s personal, sometimes it’s in-depth investigative journalism like this piece by Amy Tobin on Sunday Social Justice.

Would bloggers be able to pass muster every day writing by journalistic standards? Nope, but they’re not trying. On occasion a piece comes along the likes of squarely on the rump, and that piece deserves high praise and slotting into a publication the likes of Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Oh, did I already mention Amy Tobin’s work?  I’ve never given double link love in a blog post before and I’m gifting Amy with that first…and, she knows why!

Bloggers as Authors

jayme-soulati-blogging-book-cover.jpg

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

Are bloggers authors if they write books? Many a blogger has written a book; I’m not the first to re-purpose a treasure of archived content into a useful and educational business book.

In case you didn’t know, I recently self published, . So, bloggers can write books; have you? Does that make a blogger any less of an author? NOPE! But, some do believe so; and, that’s OK. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.

Journos as Bloggers

For sure a journalist ought to blog, but I bet the topic of the blog would not be akin to their daily beat. That would be a bit strange. Perhaps a journo could blog about a hobby or something; that way, the blog would not interfere with daily writings for the online or offline publication.

Is a freelancer a consultant? Well, you can read on that topic right here and see if you can come up with an answer any better than we could!

First Person or Third Person

Should you write in the first person or third person if you’re one person? A subscriber suggested my newsletters should be written in the first person. That shows I’m writing the content about myself.

Why?

Doesn’t everyone want to give the impression their practice is larger than one person? If you write in first person, it’s too personal and seems full of braggadocio. I can’t, and public relations professionals rarely if ever write in the first person as we’re writing for others.

I’m all about ghost writing for myself; the ones who really know me under the cover will know who’s minding the store. What about you? First person or third?

Subscribe to Jayme’s Newsletter!







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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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Eight Reasons Why Blogs Can’t Go Dormant

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credit: en.blog.wordpress.com

A recent conversation with a small-to-medium business (SMB) included the question, “If my business is booming, then why should I keep blogging?”

Great question because blogging takes a boatload of consistent time and attention. Not only is a blogger responsible for creating and publishing genuine and authoritative content, that blogger needs to nurture a community and comment on others’ blogs, too.

I get it; but, here’s what I said to my peer, friend and colleague:

  • If your blog goes dormant, you can’t walk the talk with clients.
  • When you disappear longer than four weeks with no activity, people stop coming to check in and you’re forgotten.
  • Prospects that want to check out your work expect to see up-to-date product. If a date on the most recent blog post is 60 days prior, then that sends erroneous messages. You may lose a lead if a blog is inactive.
  • To compete, you need to stay inspired. A blog gives SMB brands an opportunity to differentiate from the competition.
  • Becoming an authority is no easy task; keep the insight fresh and trendy, and the brand will benefit.

8 Tips To Get Back On Track

1. Post from the archives — there is content no one has seen in 12 months; select a favorite, add a more current opening paragraph, and voila — a fresh post!

2. Write shorter pieces. Blog posts should average about 500 words, give or take. If you’re trying to get back on track, write 350 words (you can do those in your sleep!).

3. Acknowledge your community with a list of the last 25 commenters and their blog urls. That pingback will bring peeps back to your house in droves to welcome you back.

4. Aim for one post weekly for a few weeks to get your mojo working again. Anyone who has blogged more than 12 months knows how to get back to it; just like riding a bike.

5. Remember that community you built? They’re not gone; just dormant, too. But, if you call them back with consistent posts, you’ll earn the traffic once again.

6. Think about SEO juice — what’s the number-one rule? Fresh, frequent content to boost organic attention.

7. You can’t be a one-channel wonder. Great that you’re on Facebook, but where did you really get your start? Twitter. What happened next? Blogging. Where are your clients, community, employees and prospects hanging online? A little bit of everywhere, so you need to engage equal parts Twitter, Blogging, Facebook and Google+.

8. Feeling down and out? Remember the ‘raderie your blog community inspires. There’s absolutely nothing like a good ‘old #TeamBlogJack to raise the spirits of bloggers who’ve been dormant awhile.

So, what do you say? C’mon back! You’re missed!

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