WomenEntrepreneur.com: Lena West

4 Ways to Tell If a Blog is Worthy of Your Comment

Lena West — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:02:28

In my last blog post, I talked about three ways to get more blog comments.

This time, I want to expand on one of the ways I mentioned in that post to get more comments on your own blog, and that's O.P.S. (Other People's Social).

The O.P.S. concept is such a critical part of your social media strategy, and many entrepreneurs get it wrong. They either don't comment on anyone else's blog/podcast/FB page at all or they comment on the "wrong" person's blog/podcast/FB page.

For the record, I totally get that there are no "right" and "wrong" people. But I focus on the business side of social media marketing, and from that perspective, there are "right" and "wrong."

Commenting on the "right" person's blog will start to develop the social media street cred that you need to build a platform on the social grid. (Gosh, how many buzzwords were in THAT sentence? Yeah, but ignore that, what I wrote is true.)

Commenting on the "wrong" person's blog will just waste your time.

Here are four ways to tell if a blog is worth commenting on:

Do you and the blog owner share target markets? You don't have to be in direct competition with the owner of the blog, but a good commenting strategy works best if you comment on blogs that your target market is more apt to read. It just makes sense: Be where your market is--even if that means being on someone else's blog.
What is the date of the last post? If it's more than two weeks, chances are the blog isn't that active. More than a month? Forget about it. Move onto the next blog.
How many comments does the blog have? Many people may not agree with me on this, but it is what it is. Scan through blog posts for the past month and see how much interaction happens on the blog.
Is the blog owner on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? My experience has shown me that the more social media services and tools a person uses is a good indicator of how up-to-date and active the blog will be.

These four things taken inconsideration individually may not give you a complete picture of the blog's potential at all. But when considered collectively, they present a pretty good picture as to whether its worth it to comment or not. And sometimes you have to watch the blog for a period of time to tell whether it's worth commenting. The point is: Do your due diligence!

I'm sure many people are asking, "Why should I even comment on someone else's blog at all? Does that really get me anywhere? Do people really read those things?"

The answer is: Yes! And, I'll elaborate next time. . . .

3 Ways to Get More Blog Comments

Lena West — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:23:38

Maybe it's an ego thing. And if that's the case, I get it--I understand.

People equate the success of their blog with how many comments it gets. Certainly, if you're new to social media or blogging, comments are a good number to watch (heck, in the beginning, ANY number is a good number).

But what I'm finding is that people sit back and wait for comments to roll in with the breeze.

Here's the challenge with that:

First, it's NEVA GONNA HAPPIN (*New York accent*)

More important, if you are of the mind-set that your blog is or isn't popular based on the number of comments it gets, it's kinda bassackwards to just sit and hope for comments. If this is the metric that you're tracking, you've got to DRIVE comments. It needs to be something you really focus on.

Think of it like this: If you base your personal worth (gosh, I hope no one does this!) on how much money you make, isn't it crazy not to try to do everything you can to make money? Of course . . . that would be . . . well, bassackwards.

So, how do you DRIVE people to write comments? Here are three ways:

Ask. It sounds simple, but I always say: If you don't A-S-K, you don't G-E-T. Just ask people to write a comment. Something like, "Drop a line in the comments and let me know what you think" is a good place to start. This doesn't always work at first, but it's better than not asking. And it's always good to be pleasantly surprised.
Include your audience. The first tactic is easier and more effective if you include your audience in your blog post from the beginning. Let them know you don't think you have all the answers. Ask open-ended questions throughout the blog post (try NOT to sound like a bored therapist as you do this, though).
O.P.S. A little sumthin' sumthin' that I call Other People's Social. We've all heard of OPM (Other People's Money), well, start using OPS, too! If you want a comment, write one on a popular blog. Make it genuine and regular, and you'll start to get some interest in your blog. (Note: Read my next post about when to comment and when not to . . . coming up soon.)

Anyone else got additional ways to get more comments?

Facebook & Twitter for Corporate Trainers

Lena West — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:05:35

I get a lot of books in the mail, but when I received the bright orange Worst Case Scenario Business Survival Guide by Mark Joyner and David Borgenicht, I noticed right away that it was a bit different.

The easy-to-read format offered a lot of white space, and the bullet-type advice they offer makes the content easily actionable. Just what the doctor ordered: business advice that's actionable, easy-to-read and not bogged down by a bunch of mumbo-jumbo theory.

So I reached out to Mark and David and asked if they wanted to offer any social media advice, and they provided some advice for folks working in corporate training. Here are their tips:

Set up a Twitter account for your class.
Ask all of your colleagues to follow the account on Twitter.
Post important updates to the account. (Don't use it to post nonsense, or they won't pay attention. Use it as a broadcast mechanism.)
Set up a Facebook group for your class.
Ensure that all of your students are members of this group. (Follow up. Make it a requirement.)
In the group settings, make membership a requirement to access the group. This will make your communication more secure.
Post important updates to this group. (Again, don't post nonsense or your students won't take it seriously.)
Require that your students use this group as the sole discussion board for the class outside of class hours.
Require that your students post their questions to you as a trainer there. This will create an environment of transparency and accountability.
Be sure to answer all questions posted there promptly.
Delete posts that are counterproductive or negative.

That's it. We'd pad this article with more fluff, but in the spirit of the Worst Case Scenario Business Survival Guide, we're getting right to the point and telling you what works.

The Medium is the Message

Lena West — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:05:46

One of the first decisions you need to make once you've decided to go social is which medium is the best choice.

You make these decisions based on at least the following two things:

1. What you (or whomever will actually be DOING social media) does best. In other words, are you (or they) a better speaker, writer or "actor"? Here's why these things are important:

If you know you're a better writer, start a blog, not a podcast or vlog (video blog).

If you know you're a better speaker, launch a podcast, not a blog or a vlog.

Now, let's say people always tell you that they love to hear you speak and they love your personality . . . let that shine through with a video log. This way people get to fully experience your bubbly personality.

Now, before you go and launch your latest social media hotness, you need to consider . . .

2. Which format would your audience prefer?

If you know your audience consists of people who have extreme jobs and spend a lot of time on the go, it doesn't make sense to start a blog. Will they really sit still long enough to read your blog week after week? Maybe, maybe not.Why not offer them a podcast instead? Audio files are portable, and your listeners can download and listen in from wherever they are--car, treadmill, commuter train or hotel. Most smartphones, like iPhones and BlackBerrys, can play audio files as well.

However, if your audience is highly analytical and you know they like to read, a blog is perfect!

Take your time and select the right medium. Also factor in that each social media tool achieves different objectives; blogs are great for building thought leadership, and podcasts are good for ramping up speaking opportunities.

Another thing to note: Most podcasts need to be edited, so if you 're not an audio editor, that might be an additional expense. And the same scenario potentially exists for video--do your research.

Granted there are a lot of things to consider, but it's better to do it now than face changing course once you've started.

P.S. Bonus resource: if you've decided on using video, check out my friend Jim Kukral's online video resource: OnlineVideoToolkit.com

What All this 'Tribe' Talk is About . . . and What it Means for Authors

Lena West — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:18:08

With nearly 500,000 traditional and self-published books released every year, it's become a massive challenge to get your book to stand out and sell, no matter how revolutionary it is. And much of what worked a few years back falls flat today.

So, my business buddy Jonathan Fields has spent literally the past three years tracking, reverse-engineering and then innovating new book-selling strategies--largely to help sell his own book, Career Renegade. (He also has a website by the same name.)

But he also realized how much misinformation is out there. So last month, he released a white paper called "The Truth About Book Marketing" that busted a lot of myths, annoyed a bunch of people and generated a lot of attention. (This is just how Jonathan rolls.)

Based on the huge interest in the report, he decided to launch TribalAuthor.com as a tool to share what's really working in book marketing today. Jonathan has sold thousands of books himself!

And in typical Jonathan style, he's now scheduled a Tribal Author Camp in New York City on Nov. 14 and 15. Because I have a book coming out next year, I signed up for TAC yesterday. If you have a book out now that's NOT selling well or if you have a book coming out, you need to be there, too.

Many of you know I don't attend events unless I'm speaking--well, this time, I'm the student. That's how important I think this event is.

What To Do If You Didn't Get Your Vanity URL on Facebook

Lena West — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:30:00

Back in June, Facebook allowed its account holders to create customized URLs (what Facebook called usernames and people also call vanity URLs). So instead of sending people to this link:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=0000000000

You can send them here: http://www.facebook.com/lenawest

However, if, like millions of other people, you had better things to do and were otherwise engaged on June 13, 2009, you may have missed the opportunity to snag your vanity URL on Facebook.

Here's one quick and easy way to get around that:

Head over to GoDaddy or some other such domain name registrar and grab an easy-to-remember-and-spell domain name like FacebookJaneDoe.com or JaneDoeFacebook.com. Once you've registered that domain name, activate domain forwarding on the "user friendly" domain to the looooong URL. If you don't know how to use domain forwarding, call up the company where you registered your domain and have someone walk you through it. It's free and will take about five minutes.If you can click a mouse, you can do this. No tech degree required. Promise.

If you want to see whether you can still grab your Facebook "username," log into your Fabeook account and then head over to this page: http://www.facebook.com/username/ If your username is already set up, it will tell you what it is and, if not, you'll see a way to set it up.

HINT: Even if you don't plan to use Facebook, you might want to grab your vanity URL to make sure you preserve your brand's integrity. Plus, it's a great way to build up Google Juice.

If you happen to have a copyright and someone is "squatting" on your vanity URL, you can let the Facebook team know by clicking here. They'll be on it like the Green Hornet (one hopes).

Social Media Success = Having an Opinion + Something to Say

Lena West — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:09:10

Recently, I had the opportunity to deliver a presentation at the 2009 Business Women's Forum, and one of my slides from my presentation said simply:

"People who stand in the middle of the road--get hit."

What I mean by that is, part of being successful with social media is having an opinion. Most businesspeople who are unsuccessful using social media either have nothing of value to say at all (read: posts or Tweets about pets, food selection or hairstyles) or they take a middle-of-the-road approach to issues.

Neither of these approaches serves anyone--least of all the people who consume this material. The first type of content falls into the frivolous "who cares" bucket, and the second kind is confusing.

If you're blogging, Tweeting or podcasting, people are looking to you for information and direction. They may not agree with you, but they want to know your definitive take on matters. Otherwise, what's the point of reading your stuff? They can weigh one side and the other themselves.

There are some blogs that are purposely constructed to provide both points of view, for sure, but I'm not speaking of those blogs here. I'm focusing on businesspeople who blog who are scared to have an opinion for fear of possibly, maybe, sometime-in-the-future offending someone.

As a former mentor once said, "The risk of insult is the price of clarity."

And, even good ol' Dr. Seuss says: "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

P.S. And further to that . . . chances are, if someone is offended by what you've said or written, that person wouldn't make a good client/strategic alliance/colleague for you, anyway. :)

Resist 'Social Media Haystacking'

Lena West — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:48:06

For some reason, when entrepreneurs decide they want to start using social media, they just "have at it." They spark up a Facebook or Twitter account or launch a blog, and they're off to the races.

They think that because social media and social networking tools are so easy to use AND because so many "experts" are telling them to "get their feet wet" and "just get started," they'd better get cracking. And they fall headlong into trouble. They get poor results (if any results at all), they don't get the feedback they're seeking, they waste oodles of time and then their story changes to "social media doesn't work".

Here's what's at the root of that problem: I call it "social media haystacking."
That's the act of adding social media activities to an already full schedule and then beginning to slowly but surely resent social media as yet "another thing you have to do." Women entrepreneurs are particularly susceptible to this pitfall because we usually have 90 other things we already "have to" do.

Think, for a moment, about a haystack and its formation. Or consider a pile of objects. When that pile gets too high, what happens? Whatever is on top falls off. Whatever you added last falls off--and if social media is the thing that you've added last to your "to do" pile, what do you think is the first thing to come tumbling down? Yes. Social media.

Here's what:

The solution to haystacking is simple. Before you start using social media, take a look at your marketing mix--the handful of activities you're doing to market your company. I can guarantee you that something isn't working. It might be direct mail, SEO, PPC/PPA or your e-mail newsletter. Whatever it is, recognize it for what it is--an effort that's not getting you the results you wanted for whatever reason. Take the time and energy you were investing into what's NOT working and invest that time into getting started with social media activities.

It sounds simple, but it works. The best ideas usually are not complex at all.

Stop doing what's NOT working and start doing something that has the potential to have lasting impact on your business.

How You Can Make Sure REAL People Follow You on Twitter--and NOT Spammers

Lena West — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:06:40

The other day, I read a newsletter written by a marketing consultant, and in it she says,

"Typically, if there is a difference of a few hundred people between your follower and following lists, it means you have quite of number of spammers following you and you'll need to clean them out."

I'm really glad that she modified this supposition with the word "typically," because this is definitely NOT the case. Let me use myself as an example:

For me, Twitter has been a social experiment of sorts. I was intentionally "tardy to the party" when I started using Twitter and have been conducting various experiments since then--this is the main reason that I'm not following thousands of people, and I don't have thousands of people following me by now. But I digress, that's a blog post for another place and time . . .

The main thing you need to understand is that if you look at my Twitter profile, I am someone who has a few hundred people between my following and follower numbers, but everyone who follows me is a legitimate person or business entity--not a spammer. How have I been able to do this?

I don't use any auto-follow technologies. This means that not only do I not automatically follow people who follow me, but I also don't use any technology that allows me to search for people who are talking about a particular topic and then automatically follow them. Let's be real; do you automatically befriend someone who wants to be your friend? Probably not. You probably have some sort of "friendship test" that you put people through--either knowingly or subconsciously. You might ask them to have lunch first. You might arrange a play date with your kids. Whatever the deal is, you check people out before you become friends with them.
I do the same thing with Twitter. I have gotten TONS of connection requests from spammers and people who block their feeds (so they can see what you write, but you can't see what they write unless you ask for specific permission--like what's the point of THAT??). I check out their Twitterstream, I look at their picture, I look at their description and I look at their website. If they seem "real," they don't get blocked. If they're promoting porn, MLM or using foul language in their Twitterstream, profile or website, they get blocked. It's that simple. And you might say that all this takes time. Yes, but once you know how to do it, it's a two-second process--AND you make sure that you only have REAL people following you, which is the whole point of Twitter. And if you think THIS process takes time, how much time does it take to "clean out followers" every so often? I don't even wanna know. Doesn't it make more sense to catch the spammers as soon as they start following you?

So while I might have a big gap between the number of people I'm following and the number of people following me, rest assured it's intentional. And because I've taken the time to hand-select who gets to read my Twitterfeed, I have access to REAL people.

Diverse Online Conversations MINUS the 'Snark Factor'

Lena West — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:39:25

Seriously, what we don't need is yet another social networking site.

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised with the conversation over at OurConvo.com. It promises a "kinder, gentler" forum for anyone to express his or her views . . . without having to endure the negative, borderline (and sometimes over-the-border) abuses found on other social networks--I'm sure I don't need to mention any names, do I?

Check it out . . . simple, easy, effective, and . . . kind. Can't beat that!