With the ongoing economic influx, online marketers are turning to the push-pull of the web to become more efficient. They're using social media, they're publishing targeted and relevant content and they're optimizing it. They're becoming Inbound Marketers - using strategic marketing methods to get customers to come to them. 

In traditional marketing (Outbound Marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use a wide net to target customers such as cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, direct mail and trade shows. These techniques are expensive and follow a long sales cycle. Technology is making these methods less effective and more expensive - reason simply, customers want control over what and how they are courted. 

What you should do to create an Inbound Marketing strategy: 

Content - Content is the key to any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the vehicle that attracts potential customers to your site or your business. More than likely, you have content that already exists in many formats. Take an inventory of content and repurpose or rewrite what is relevant. 

Search Engine Optimization - SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. Create inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines -- this is where most of your customers begin their buying process. Create an ongoing process to organically optimize your web content, PDFs and other content to your site. 

Social Media - Social media maximizes the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks, it becomes more authentic and credible, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site. Begin by creating your own blog with several relevant and targeted blog channels. Reply, respond or reciprocate with social networks or other blog channels creating a win-win for all.

What is the ROI of concentrating on Inbound Marketing initiatives: 

Costs - Outbound marketing means spending money - either by buying ads, buying e-mail lists or renting huge booths at trade shows. Inbound Marketing means creating content and talking about it. A blog costs very little to start. A Twitter account is free, too. Both can draw thousands of customers to your site. 

Lead Generation - Cold-calling, direct mail and e-mail campaigns are typically poorly targeted and do not provide measurable ROI. You're reaching out to individuals because of one or two attributes in a database. When you do Inbound Marketing, you only approach people who self-qualify themselves. They demonstrate an interest in your content, so they are likely to be interested in your product.  

Quantifiable Investment - When you buy pay-per-click advertising on search engines, its value is gone as soon as you pay for it. In order to maintain a position at the top of Google's paid results, you have to keep paying. However, if you simultaneously invest that money in pay-per-click and quality content that ranks in Google's organic results, you'll be there until somebody displaces you. 

Sources and Excerpts: 

Inbound Needs Oubound by Marketing Interactions 

Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web by HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog

What is Inbound Marketing? by Business Knowledge Source

Best,

Denice MacDonald

[Photo courtesy of michielgaasterland.com]

Content Strategy within the Design Process is an excellent article written by Brad Shorr at Smashing Magazine on how: Content Strategy is the glue that holds a project together AND that language influences behavior.

I loved how Brad gave an objective overview of how content is an emerging practice area that needs recognition and integration into the development process from the beginning -- and through -- any digital project or initiative. If anything, you need to read the barter and exchange of team members during the process - hillarious and spot-on!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Likewise, Brad provides a compelling infographic [right] as well as additional resources on the subject:

The New Rules of Marketing and PR - David Meerman Scott
Explains content strategy better than anyone. The third edition was published in July 2011.

Content Strategy - Google Knol
For a thorough overview of content strategy and links to books, blogs and other resources, check out this fantastic Knol.

Call to Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices - Jacob Gube
To promote creative compatibility, designers and writers alike should study this Smashing Magazine article.

Top Ten Mistakes of Web Management - Jakob Nielsen
For insight into design-related project management, read this post by the brilliant Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen.

Lastly, you need to subscribe to Smashing Magazine’s network or obtain their free five year anniversary eBook here! Well worth the download and/or sharing with others.
                                                                                                                (Image credit: Chris Depa, Straight North)

Best,
Denice MacDonald

Google+ has emerged as a key player in online marketing and definitely poses competition to Facebook. However, Google+ isn’t the easiest thing to understand. Reason simply, it has a lot of features that can confuse beginners. Even advanced users can miss a lot of the little gems and nuances that define Google+.

So to help out, I have assembled some really good articles for consumers AND businesses to aid in adapting quickly to Google+.

Original announcement (with video) and introduction to Google+

Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

Here's a great article by Mashable (continually updated) containing screen shots, video and cheat sheets with content for all facets of Google+ including Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and mobile:

Google+ The Complete Guide

http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-guide/

New eBook: How to use Google+ for Business Hubspot)

http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-google-plus-for-business/?source=hspd-website-magazine-how-to-use-google-plus-for-business-20111122

Here's a great cheat sheet from Mashable:

Best,

Denice MacDonald

We all have seen the surge in the use of social networks like Facebook and MySpace allowing us to connect in unprecedented ways. The acceptance of social networks has allowed niche networks to flourish - offering topics and resources to specific targeted markets. 

Marketing through social sites 

While these sites' traffic may pale in comparison to the big networks, there's a good opportunity to connect and market to a dedicated audience who might be more open to learning a little more about your product, services or offerings. If you provide real value to members, they will be much more willing to engage your brand. 

Finding that 'niche' social network 

Try spending a some time investigating your industry - chances are there's a network out there where you can promote and/or brand your business to a specific target audience. Begin with associations or affiliations that are tied to your industry segment. Then, research specific topics or issues that resonate with your customers. Yes, your competitors will be right alongside you, but consumers will be there too. And they will be looking for an expert in the field.  

Lastly, if you can’t find a specialized community for your industry, you could always create one.   

Get started: Learning from the best 

How to Identify & Target the Right Niche Social Media Sites  by Chris Winfield

Fastest Growing Niche Social Media Sites and Networks by Jessica Merritt

Nine Ways to Build Your Own Social Network by Mark Hendrickson

The following is a list of the top social niche networks that target specific audience or cater to a special interest for you B2C enthusiasts:

43 Things -- A social networking site that targets goal-setting, members are interlinked by the goals they are going after and the goals they have completed.

BlackPlanet -- One of the oldest social networks, and the most popular special interest social networking site, BlackPlanet caters to African-Americans.

Care2 -- Green living beyond just social networking, Care2 offers email, blogging, shopping, and more, all catered to those wishing to live a green life.

Classmates -- Founded in 1995, Classmates was one of the first social networks on the web and still caters primarily to schools and colleges. Classmates charges a fee for advanced services that are usually free on other social networking sites. The website also uses questionable marketing practices by emailing non-paying users and inviting them to pay for the premium service under the pretense that someone was searching for them.

eCrush -- A social network targeting teens, eCrush is the 21st century's answer to writing "Do you like me?" on a piece of paper with a boxes for yes and no and a request to check the one that applies. Teens tell eCrush who they have a crush on, and then eCrush asks those people who they have crushes on. If there is a match, eCrush lets both know, otherwise, the person is none the wiser.

Flixter -- With a tagline of "stop watching bad movies," Flixter combines social networking with movie reviews.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Earned Media is basically free media. Earned Media specifically refers to publicity gained through editorial influence and has become the backbone of many social media initiatives and social content development strategies.

With so much user generated content these days, it would behoove an organization not to take advantage of the magnitude of earned media – integrating an earned media strategy during content conception into execution.

Definition

To get the definitions out of the way, those in the marketing and agency world are privy to the buzzwords “paid,” “earned” and owned.” Traditionally, they stand for the different types of media and can be easily broken down like this:

• Paid: Buying a 30-second Super Bowl spot
• Earned: Coverage on Mashable (aka user word of mouth)
• Owned: Your company’s website

The business case for Earned Media

Don’t forget all content — whether it’s text, a video or a microsite — will be “reduced to a link” for social spheres making Earned Media an easy thing to do. There were 500 billion word-of-mouth impressions made by Americans online according to Forrester. Such volumes of word-of-mouth marketing can spread awareness of a product incredibly quickly, and it’s why earned media has become so important to a marketing campaign.

Understanding its usage

Let’s run through a scenario. Earned Media, for example, is what you get when you develop a connection with someone that’s compelled to write a Yahoo review, a blog post, a comment or a tweet, sharing their thoughts on your brand with their social network. It sounds simple but it does take forethought.

Specifically, you will need to develop a strategy at content conception and then filter everything through its earned potential. That is, did I get the right audience, is the content compelling to share (good or bad) and do we make it easy to ‘syndicate’ the efforts (share tools, icons, other channels and formats) and, most importantly, does it integrate nicely as a natural springboard from traditional paid or owned media?

More on Earned Media:

For Social Media Marketing, Earned Media Rules -- MediaPost

How Social Media is Changing Paid, Earned and Owned Media -- Mashable

Defining Earned, Owned And Paid Media – Forrester Blogs

Best

Denice MacDonald

Had to make this recommendation! CMO.com is an excellent resource for professional marketers with little time on their hands who need access to current trends and digital marketing ideas.

Specifically, CMO.com offers digital marketing insight for chief marketing officers. It has four major sections:

1. News -- Headlines about digital marketing news, trends, announcements, marketing analytics, marketing resources, marketing Web sites, blog marketing, and other information about digital marketing and key players in the digital marketing space
2. Insight -- Articles, reports, surveys, statistics, commentary from industry experts, and other digital marketing resources that have a relatively long "shelf life"
3. Blogs -- Select posts about blog marketing from influential bloggers, other CMOs, and industry publications
4. CMO Perspectives -- Interviews with leading CMOs, findings from surveys of marketing executives, and a listing of industry events for CMOs and their staff.

Easy to Navigate!

Select articles from these sections are shown on the CMO.com home page. Additionally, each section has an "index page" that lists all articles for that section. Drop-down menus allow you to browse articles that cover more than 70 specific digital marketing topics, including: brand marketing strategy, email marketing strategy, mobile marketing strategy, news marketing, search marketing, social marketing, video marketing strategy, Web blogs, and Web site marketing strategy.

I strongly suggest you connect with this great resource!

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Fast and furious - that is how all users want to access AND consume content. QR codes are being used to make that possible.

What is it?

Quick Response code is a type of matrix barcode or two-dimensional code consisting of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background.

When you scan or read a QR code with your iPhone, Android or other camera-enabled Smartphone, you can link to digital content on the web; activate a number of phone functions including email, IM and SMS; and connect the mobile device to a web browser.

Aligning and integrating lots of cross-channel initiatives:                  

Digital strategists like myself LOVE this new and evolving technology. The ability of QR codes to connect people with each other and to multimedia digital content is very useful for businesses and consumers alike. From locations, to hours to freebies, QR codes can engage all types of buyers readily and without distraction (less friction and more interaction).

Of crucial excitement is the ability to really integrate offline initiatives to measurable online actions. Consider adding QR codes to your print, name tags, event material, advertisements, door signs and more.

Want to create your own QR Code? Simply go to this website http://keremerkan.net/ where you can create any or all of the following code to:

• Browse to a website.

• Bookmark a website.

• Make a phone call.

• Send a short message.

• Send an e-mail.

• Create a vCard (v2.1 or v3.0) with coordinates to add a contact to your device.

• Create a meCard to add a contact to your device.

• Create a vCalendar event to add to your calendar.

• Create Google Maps URLs.

• Create Bing Maps URLs.

• Create raw geological coordinates.

• Create iTunes app and review URLs for iOS devices.

• Create market:// URLs for searching for publishers or packages on Market app for Android.

• Create Foursquare venue URLs.

• Create special youtube:// URLs for YouTube app on iOS.

• Obtain and encode the latest tweet of a Twitter user.

• Overlay a Twitter profile image over the code.

• Create a mobile URL to tweet on Twitter.

• Initiate a chat to a particular Blackberry PIN on Blackberry Messenger.

• Connect to a WIFI network on Android devices.

• Read plain or free formatted text on your device.

As you can see, the ideas are endless. Take advantage of this new technology now and make it a staple in your digital and offline marketing campaigns and initiatives!

Best,

Denice MacDonald

BTW: Here's the MacDonald Consulting Services QR Code:

Website Magazine has written a superb article on Rethinking Reputation Management - a practice that has not gone unnoticed by businesses both large and small.

Basically, Website Magazine defines Reputation Management as: a business and personal reputation that is measured by a consumers’ perception of the brand’s products and services.

Let’s face it, not all businesses can afford to invest in sophisticated online reputation management tools such as Marchex [which is a great tool by the way]. So what to do?

Website Magazine suggests that organizations do ‘Reputation Management in Reverse’ – basically identify the companies you are competing against by actively following, tracking and monitoring them. Moreover, the article emphasizes that you need to track new competitors and their followers, engaging that audience frequently and building your social network with one competitor’s downfall after the next [competitor social listening].

According to the Website Magazine: “whether you have brand equity and brand awareness or not, it has been proven time and again that knowing what customers and prospects are saying and feeling about your business is of importance — the same holds true for what is being said about the competition.” 

Read full article. 

About Website Magazine: Website Magazine is a ‘must-have’ resource.  Reason simply, Website Magazine is the one magazine to focus exclusively on the business of running a website: tips for successful websites, solutions for enhancing website traffic, the latest Internet industry trends and statistics, as well as news analysis on the Internet industry. Go here to subscribe.   

Best,

Denice MacDonald

[Graphic courtesy of: http://social-media.co.uk/]

Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring their web metrics strategy by how many web pages that were viewed or by how many people that have visited. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.

Whether its website traffic analysis, search engine optimization or tracking business success metrics, you need to develop a web strategy ‘up front’ to support measurement objectives. This thought process seems so fundamental but rarely exercised.  Take these simple rules:

A strategic plan for evaluating your website will help you:

1. Collect only the data you need to make informed, strategic decisions
2. Identify priority “action areas” for improvement, measure the impact of those actions -- and keep your customers coming back
3. Determine benchmarks and performance goals you should aspire to, and the extent to which you’re achieving them
4. Determine whether you’re getting a return on the investment you’ve made to build, operate and maintain your website(s)
5. Evaluate how well your website is performing relative to competitors, your company's brand, mission statement or hiring criteria

Develop a plan – a strategy – and review and adjust it regularly by asking these questions:

• What do you need to measure
• What are your requirements
• How will you measure it
• What tools will you use
• What methodologies are needed to gather the data you need
• What will you do with the results
• How will the results help meet the goals for your website and your company's mission
• How does the plan fit with your company's overall strategic and performance plan

Once armed with this process and validation, you will find that your ROI exceeds expectations. 

Great Resources:

Coremetrics Web Metrics
Get powerful website metrics with the leading provider.

Web Measurement Data Fast
ClickTracks web measurement shows behavior, conversion, groups, SEO.

WebTrends Analytics
Marketing Intelligence Solutions, leading analytic & metrics software.

Web Analytics
Compare web analytics products and get a free report sample from CMS Watch.

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
If you have an interest in measuring the success of your website, then this book is definitely for you!

Best,

Denice MacDonald

A heat map is a picture of a web page that shows where users click when they visit a particular page.  From a techy perspective, a heat map is artificial intelligence that simulates human vision during the first 5 seconds of exposure to visuals.  

How does it work? 

The areas that are clicked most often appear in red (hot spot), while the areas clicked least often appear in blue or with no color at all.   

Why should you care? 

Heat maps are a tool used by web developers as part of usability testing. Understanding how visitors behave when they visit your web site is crucial to improving its effectiveness – not to mention conversion.  

Looking at the image to the right, it appears that MacDonald Consulting needs to improve image placement on the header and within center copy real estate to increase visitor interaction and conversion. 

Doing so will encourage visitors to click on header links (top blue area to the right within the graphic).

How to build a website heat map: 

Two of the most popular heat map generator applications are CrazyEgg and Feng-GUI.

Give it a try! You'll be amazed!

Best

Denice MacDonald

Time magazine just released their listing of the 50 best websites for 2011.

According to Time, they honor the scrappy newcomers and established players that make the Web so useful, entertaining and just plain indispensable.

Read more.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Facebook is the most popular social network, and with over 750 million users, it can serve as an important marketing tool for any business. Let's face it: your prospects are on Facebook whether you like it or not.

A successfully maintained Facebook presence can help your business:

•Get found by potential customers

•Connect and engage with current customers

•Create a community around your brand

•Promote and expand the reach of your content

•Generate leads!

Download This Free eBook Now!   

Denice MacDonald 

With the social media craze in full action, how do you keep ahead of the pack relative to the best social resources? 

Below you will find my top picks that will help your organization connect social media to business initiatives – including the last resource on building influence while maintaining your brand reputation. Enjoy! 

Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel

This is the first book to integrate digital marketing, social media, personal branding, and entrepreneurship in a clear, entertaining, and instructive manner that everyone can understand and apply. 

Buy it at Amazon

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     . 

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck

Cash in on your passion! The social media revolution has changed the way we live our lives and conduct our business. Learn how Crush It will give you the tools to take advantage and WIN.  

Buy it at Amazon 

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .    

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Use the web to build influence, improve reputation and earn trust. 

Buy it at Amazon 

Denice MacDonald

Marketers are under constant pressure to measure and demonstrate marketing’s ROI and impact on overall revenue. With compelling graphics and real-life examples of Marketo’s own metrics and tactics, the new Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics offers best practices and techniques for harnessing data to not only prove, but improve ROI.

This 70 page guide will teach you:

1. The right metrics for understanding and interpreting marketing results
2. Why measuring marketing programs is difficult, and how to do it correctly and efficiently
3. Revenue metrics that get the executives' attention and prove marketing ROI
4. The critical elements of a marketing dashboard
5. And much, much more!

Marketo requires some basic information for download - but well worth it!

Best,
Denice MacDonald

[Source: Marketo Website]

With social media on the rise, many marketing professionals are in the midst of explaining, emulating and selling social media to management and/or clients. Why not consider infographics - visual representations of social information, social data or social knowledge?

Specifically, infographics provide statistical relevance, digital integration not to mention future payback that words cannot convey.

The following are great links with various infographics:

35 Great Social Media Infographics by Pat Dyer of Pamorama – 35 great infographics that have been cropped down for viewing – linking to the original graphic.

10 Beautiful Social Media Infographics by Grace Smith of Mashable – Similarly to Pamorama’s collection, this grouping concentrates on both social networking sites and twitter – also linking back to the original graphic.

Social Media Infographics from Slideshare – Tons of infographics – 50 in total.

These social media graphics will help convey your message – quickly.

[Infographic courtesy of Elliance]

Enjoy!

Best

Denice MacDonald

My favorite resource Website Magazine has posted a timely article in a recent publication: The New Content Experience - Driving awareness, providing entertainment and generating profit.  

Strategic Web Content Kicks Brochureware Content to the Curb
This timely article indicates that ... "there is more content available on the Web than ever before, and it’s being delivered to consumers at blinding speeds. To make content stand out in a saturated market (and ensure that it ultimately influences sales and conversions), you will need to rethink content as an asset — then retool for the new content experience." 

Great Example: White Papers and Thought Leadership
“Those seeking information on solutions, trends and technologies are the ideal audience for a content marketing strategy. Our question throughout is not just what kind of content to create but what format will resonate best. The answer, particularly for those in business-to-business industries, is white papers…” 

The article goes on to discuss video and other rich media as part of the content mix. 

Check out the article. 

Subscribe to Website Magazine.  

More on content strategy by MacDonald Consulting:

Web Content: Relevant, Persuasive and to the Point 

Get it right: Web Copy 

Best

Denice MacDonald

You've spent a lot of time building up your reputation and image both online and off, so it's important to make sure that someone or something has not jeopardized your brand.

One of the simplest and easiest ways to track your reputation is to use Google Alerts. With this free service, you can search either all of Google's properties, or you can specify that only News, Blogs, Web, Video, or Groups is searched. You can then configure the Alerts results to be emailed to you either as it happens, once a day, or once a week. There is also a page where you can edit the alerts once they are created or delete them when they are no longer in use. 

If making a good name for yourself online is a priority, it's time to take a proactive approach to getting your name out there the way you want.  

BUSINESS SOCIAL NETWORKS – Complete your profile in its entirety and connect with key professionals in your network.

BLOGS – Consider a business blog and one that you contribute to – showing you are a thought leader will aid in elevating you or your products in your industry. Likewise, use blogs to amend or respond to bad hype.

WEB 2.0 PR – Get news interviews, podcasts, webinars with clients 'live' online. Third party testimonials by key constituents regarding your products and services will go a long way in building brand reputation.

LINKING – If you have a web site, consider carefully where and how inbound and outbound links are connected – bad links will reflect poorly on your brand.

SUB-DOMAINS - Add a sub-domain for careers, corporate and/or product info for little or no cost.  Not only will sub-domains elevate your search results but add depth to your reputation.

PPC/ONLINE ADVERTISING – This can only help protect your brand and will help influence visitors to see who is the real website that should be visited.

SEARCH - Take control of the visible results of any search related to your brand. By taking a coordinated approach to search engine optimization, you take greater control of the other nine slots.  

FREE MONITORING TOOLS:

Similarly to Google Alerts, Yahoo! Pipes is also a good tool for aggregating and combining feeds into one central repository.

Using Twitter search you can locate any instances of your name and decide whether you want to tweet back or ignore them. 

If you have a blog, then you have to be on Technorati. Technorati tracks “blog reactions,” or blogs that link to yours. Search for your brand on Technorati, and subscribe to RSS alerts so that when someone blogs about you, you find out.

Yacktrack lets you search for comments on your content from various sources, such as Blogger, Digg, FriendFeed, Stumbleupon, and Wordpress blogs.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Whether it’s starting a social media campaign, integrating social media into your advertising or simply setting up a Facebook fan page, it is always wise to seek out experts who have proven experience (and metrics) to help guide you in your social media initiatives.  

Here are some great resources you should bookmark or subscribe via RSS: 

Learn How Human Business Works — Beyond Social Media
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

Web Strategy, Social Media, Web Marketing
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog

Brian Solis
http://www.briansolis.com/

Social Media Strategy Blog and Social Media Consulting — Convince and Convert
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/  

Social Media Explorer — Social Media Consulting, Public Speaking and Education
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/

Seth Godin’s Blog
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Conversation Agent
http://www.conversationagent.com/

PR-Squared
http://www.pr-squared.com/

Online Marketing Blog
http://www.toprankblog.com/

Social Media Examiner, Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

Social Media Today
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/

Web Ink Now 
http://www.webinknow.com/

MarketingProfs Daily Fix
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/

Hubspot Internet Marketing Blog
http://blog.hubspot.com/

Search Engine Land — Search Marketing & Search Engines
http://www.searchengineland.com/  

And lastly, Top 100 FREE Social Media Marketing Resources from my LinkedIn group "Social Media Marketing": http://tinyurl.com/6esq5kp 

Best
Denice MacDonald

When online community building first hit the scene several years back, I was one of the first marketers to encourage clients to comment (blogs, communities, chats, interactive sharing sites). Reason simply, not only do you get to participate and share your thoughts with others, but you have the opportunity to generate exposure for your own brand simultaneously.

The downside to this is quite a few SEO companies have exploited the comment feature by providing non-topic related responses and obnoxious links to websites that have nothing to do with the subject at hand in order to create SEO relevance for their customers. 

This erosion has depleted the opportunity for real brand marketers to establish an ongoing dialoque or resource sharing that could actually help organizations promote their product or services.

Today, I read an article from my favorite publication, Website Magazine, on the nuances AND guidelines for commenting. Website Magazine breaks the strategy into “Five Rules of Engagement for Commenting” as follows:

Participate in the Conversation: Provide a response and the reason you are responding. 

Reward Positive Contributions: This one is self-explanatory – ensure that you recognize the ‘good’ contributors.

Punish Disruptive Behavior: As I indicated at the beginning of this post – you may need to ban IP addresses that are spamming your website. Unfortunately, I had to turn off my comments section altogether.

Provide Supporting Data/Arguments: The sole purpose of commenting is to provide interactive dialoque with visitors – in response, it is always good to provide data in the form of links or websites that substantiate a point of view or your stance on a particular subject or topic.

Declare Personal Interest: Transparency is critical in creating authenticity. Do not use masked emails or other means to disguise who you are.

To read more about the aforementioned Rules of Engagement, go to “Optimizing the Comment Experience” by Website Magazine.

More Resources

How To Tackle Negative Comments While Managing Community In Social Media from Social Media Today

The Positive Side of Negative Reviews from ERExchange  

Best
Denice MacDonald 

After participating in several webinars this week, I continue to hear that corporate blogs are still the hub for many social media intiatives. And, anyone who has a vested interest in a corporate blog knows it takes time and effort to produce a great blog - especially if it is the cornerstone for most of your corporation's social media content.

Here are my 'must-haves' for a successful corporate blog:

Blogger shows enthusiasm for his/her blog. If it's written to fill space, I can tell. I’m only interested in blogs that surprise, delight, amuse and inform offering a unique view into your organization.

The blog is well written. I read certain blogs because I not only enjoy reading them, but I’m truly getting information that is important to me – in a style of writing that is more conversational and with the bloggers point of view (good or bad) in mind.

The blog has links to other blogs, newsfeeds or other relevant information. I want to know that this blog is going to get me the next relevant click of information. I love resources, links back to other blogs and creditable information so that I can understand the bloggers opinion or slant.

The blog is updated regularly. There’s nothing worse than finding a great blog only to find out that the blogger blogs on a sporadic basis. I want a blog to be committed to me, the reader, by providing ongoing, updated content – especially if I have subscribed to their feeds. 

The blog embraces comments and feedback. I welcome an opportunity to comment on content and provide my opinion on topics. More sophisticated blogs allows sign in and the ability to post comments making the blog very interactive and viral in nature. Corporations can reply (in kind) - especially to diffuse any negative connotation about the organization or its products and services.

The blog is properly tagged and categorized. Make it easy for me to move around your blog, clicking on other categories or relevant tags.

Great Blogging Resource at Amazon:

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

More Great Bloggers:

The Rules Behind Creating a Great Blog by Tom Hung, ProBlogger

27 Tips for Building a Kick-ass Blog by Ahmed Bilal

What Makes a Great Company Blog by Mack Collier

Best

Denice MacDonald