Bedell Communications

Got content? Need more? In my last post I brought up the idea of recycling content to get more out of your marketing budget.  Podcasts, videocasts, and webcasts lend themselves well to this idea.

You can transcribe an excerpt of a podcast, videocast, or webcast to create a short technical article for your Web site or blog. Listen/view your ‘cast and identify the soundbite you want to reproduce. It should provide a complete idea and be able to stand alone. For example, from a webcast on migrating to Windows 7, you might excerpt the first, preparatory step. You can either transcribe that excerpt word-for-word and edit it, or you can summarize it based on what you heard. Here are some tips for making this work:

• Add an introductory paragraph that puts the article in context. Focus on the content you’re reproducing, not the ‘cast you pulled it from.
• Wrap up the article with a short paragraph explaining where the content came from with a link to the full ‘cast. This is a great opportunity to generate more leads. You might also include this information in a sidebar to make it more visible.
• Keep the entire article between 300-5oo words if you’re posting it on the Web. Keep to the shorter side of that range if you’re using it as a blog post.
• This format is great for concise, actionable how-to advice.  Readers immediately get a sense of how they’ll benefit from the larger piece. (Don’t forget that link!)
• Take advantage of images. If the excerpt relies on a visual — a slide from a webcast, for example — post it as an image with the article. You can even include a short video clip.
• Give the article a unique title that is optimized for search engines.
• Distribute the article via e-newsletter or submit it to online tech pubs.

– Crystal Bedell

When it comes to promoting Bedell Communications via social networking Web sites, I have a difficult time crossing the line between my business and personal lives (even though the line is so fuzzy in real life it can hardly be seen). And yet I gravitate toward entrepreneurs who add a personal touch to their own business communications. That’s why Chris Brogan’s blog post Ways to Be Human at a Distance immediately caught my attention.

Chris offers some great ideas for making your company personal in an impersonal world, and after meditating on his post, I’ve come to realize that there are more benefits to being personal than there are drawbacks. It’s the equivalent of calling tech support and speaking to a live, friendly person as opposed to dialing through menu after menu only to hang up feeling frustrated.

In an industry that is constantly advancing and in which customers must cut through a lot of noise, injecting personality in blog posts and social networking updates can help you stand out from the rest. It allows you to build a rapport with customers outside of the sales cycle. It can create a foundation of trust.

So what does it mean to be “personal” in tech marketing? I think about the contributors that I worked with as a tech editor. Those writers who called it like they saw it, were down to earth, and were honest about their experiences  with technology earned readers’ respect. They took a chance by being transparent about themselves, and our readers rewarded them with loyalty.

I’d like to know what you think. What are your experiences with personalization and social media? What are the challenges you’ve faced? — Crystal Bedell 

I am not a social media expert. But I am learning as much as I can about using Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., to promote the professional copywriting services we offer at Bedell Communications. As I stumble across helpful tips or experience successes, I’ll share them with you, such as the success I’ve had increasing traffic to the Tech Marcom Blog using LinkedIn.

There are a number of ways to promote business blogs on LinkedIn, but I have been particularly pleased with the traffic I’ve seen by promoting blog posts  to LinkedIn groups. This may seem fairly obvious, but it recently occurred to me that I don’t see other networkers doing this — or at least, not the same way — so I thought I’d share what I’ve learned.

The key to increasing your blog traffic is to find the right LinkedIn groups to promote your content to. Determine who is the target audience for your blog post, then search through the thousands of groups to find out where that audience gathers. Once you’ve found some potential groups, narrow them down to one or two based on the number of members in the group and their titles.

Over time, you may find it necessary to join several different groups for the different topics you write about. For example, I joined the Tech PR group specifically to promote my posts about writing and pitching press releases.

How you promote your posts is just as important as the group you promote it to. Here’s what’s worked for me. Click on Start a Discussion. In the Enter a Topic or Discussion field, enter the search-engine optimized title of your post. In the Additional Details field, enter the first graph or a summary of your post, followed by the link.

A benefit to promoting your blog posts this way is that it goes out to an e-mail list you might not otherwise have access to. It also sparks discussion amongst business and technology professionals. However, that leads me to a disadvantage. Blog visitors tend to go back to the LinkedIn site to post their comments and questions, rather than doing so on the blog itself. But for a new and growing business, any user interaction is helpful.

Granted, this process takes some time and effort. So if you find that you don’t get a response from one group, try another. And, of course, share your lessons learned here. — Crystal Bedell

Maintaining a business blog is a lot of work. When faced with a lengthy to-do list, the thought of creating an intriguing piece of original content can be downright daunting. Enter writer’s block. It’s no different than the novelist struggling with how to off her main character or the student starting a research report — except in this case we could call it blogger’s block. So let’s look at some time tested — and newer — means of overcoming writer’s block.

• Read industry news. What’s going on in your industry? Is there a new worm on the loose? Did a natural disaster put companies’ data at risk? Has a competitor released a new product? As you’re reading the news, be aware of your reactions. Would your audience care to know what you’re thinking?
• Read industry blogs. Same idea here. What are analysts saying? Your peers? Competitors? Are there themes that you can comment on or disagree with?
• Try a different point of view. The lines between technology industries are blurring. For example, security functionality is being incorporated into networking products. What can you say about your security product that would be of interest to the network admin? And vice versa?
• Use SEO keyword tools like Google’s Keyword Tool to see what your potential readers are searching for. Take this one step further and use those search terms yourself. What can you add to the conversation?
• Make a list of challenges that your customers face and write a blog post on each offering advice or a solution.
• Recycle content. Excerpt white papers, transcribe a portion of a Webcast, summarize case studies, etc. Be sure to begin the post with a short explanation of where the content is coming from to put it in perspective for the reader. Also, don’t forget to include a link to register for the full piece of content at the end of your post.
• Review books and other media related to your industry.
• Compile an objective top 10 from your own blog. If your company has been blogging for awhile, compile a list of the top 10 blog posts based on page views.
• Compile a subjective top 10 from your own blog, titled something like “Top 10 posts you might have missed.” This is a great opportunity to dig up posts that for one reason or another — maybe it was posted late on a Friday — didn’t get the traffic they deserved the first time around.
• Write a prediction piece. What can readers expect from your industry in the coming six months or year? At the end of that time period, revisit your post and hold yourself accountable for your predictions. Where were you wrong? What did you predict correctly?
• Write a Q&A with a customer, an industry celebrity or an internal employee (maybe a developer or a consultant).
• Comment on B2B technology intersecting with consumer technology. For example, how are consumer storage needs and solutions evolving as a result of the evolution of B2B solutions?
• Use a blog ghostwriter. Supplement some of your posts with those written by a freelance copywriter and you may find those creative juices flowing again since you have less pressure to produce content.

There are plenty more ideas available in books and on the Web for beating writer’s block. The best tips are those that you can work into your regular routine with ease so that you can maintain a steady list of topics to write about — thereby avoiding writer’s block altogether. What works for you? Share your suggestions! — Crystal Bedell

The Tech Marcom Blog has been live for about a month now and during this same time I’ve found Paul Gillin’s series on Blogging Blunders incredibly helpful. There’s a lot to tackle in successful blogging if you’re in it for the long haul — and you should be. There’s one thing, though, that can help you overcome many of the challenges Paul addresses. That is the idea of hiring a freelance technology copywriter to ghostwrite your blog. Here are five benefits to hiring a blog ghostwriter:

• By hiring a professional copywriter to write your blog, you avoid blogging burnout as Paul addresses in Part 3 of his series on Blogging Blunders. Sit down with your blog ghostwriter once a month to outline an editorial calendar and provide the necessary research materials, and leave the rest to your copywriter.
• If you’ve found a professional copywriter who understands technology (and I suggest you do), then these meetings should be a two-way conversation with your copywriter contributing relevant ideas on content, SEO, etc. It never hurts to have another perspective — especially one from outside of your organization.
• You’ll have a steady supply of content. The more you post, the better your page views will be. Have your copywriter provide 1-2 pieces a week in addition to what the folks on your staff produce to ensure that you always have a minimum amount of fresh content to post.
• Similarly, a blog ghostwriter will help ensure that you’re not left with an abandoned blog should the blog’s internal sponsor leave the company.  Just be sure to have a contract in place with your copywriter to ensure that you’re not simply transferring risk from one individual to another.
• With the pressure off of you to produce content, you’ll have more time to tackle the myriad other details that contribute to a successful blog, as described by Paul in Blogging Blunders, Part 1. — Crystal Bedell