To Blog or Not to Blog

Outside of the fact that you happen to be reading one right now, I find that there are lots of smart, business savvy folks out there who when placed in the position of having to explain, strategize or build a blog (or decide if one should be built at all) are at a bit of a loss. Blogs are usually easy for most people to recognize but harder for folks to define.

When I hosted a free class on the subject (as I do from time to time) it "sold out" (in the way only free classes can!) the room filled to capacity.

Even those who can sort of describe a blog, often find it hard to understand when, why and how to create one so that it will actually create benefit for a business, organization, cause etc..

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Of course everyone who manages a successful blog has found themselves in a similar position at least once and gotten past it, so I thought I could impart a few words of advice.

First of all, what is a blog really?

A blog is just a Web site.

Let me repeat that for the non-believers — A BLOG IS JUST A WEB SITE.

But it's a special kind of Web site.

Let's start by looking at the different kinds of Web sites that exist. Many of the students of my in-person classes will recognize this.

According to my calculations and ruminations, there are essentially 4 kinds of Web sites you can build based on how your business attracts revenue:

Web Site Types

Branding
Examples: Coca Cola, Dove Advertising Revenue
Examples: Inc.com, Google.com eCommerce
Examples: Amazon, Zappos Lead Generation
Examples: messagemedium.com, razorfish.com

A branding site like Dove is working hard to immerse the viewer in the company's ethos. You can't actually buy any product from their site, they don't seem to sell ads, nor are they pushing hard for you to give up your contact information. Dove's site is all about convincing you of their commitment to improving women's natural beauty and self-esteem in the hope that this will generate an emotional affinity to their brand.

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An advertising revenue site like Inc.com has articles and information as its content. It is designed and organized into categories like "Business Advice" "Tech Startup" "The Internet Strategist" to display that content in a way that's easy for you — the reader — to find, read and pass along.

An Online Store like Zappos.com has products — shoes - as its content. So it is organized and designed to make it easy for you to find the kind of shoes you're looking for. One of reasons Zappos is so popular is it provides a variety of ways to find what you're looking for.

A service Web site like message medium has services as its content. So our site is organized to make it easy for you to find our services and also to find the things that make us a credible company to work with — testimonials, articles, client samples, news clippings etc.

As a business owner, more than likely you are not looking to spend millions of dollars on a branding Web site so let's focus on the other three.

So How do Blogs fit in?

Blogs are an interesting breed of Web site. In structure, they are most like Advertising Revenue sites. Like a newspaper, they usually publish content with some predictable regularity, and the content is typically arranged by date and/or by category so that it can be easily found by readers.

But what's interesting about blogs and has made them so ubiquitous, is that they, with all of their content and social elements, can be used very effectively to support an Advertising, eCommerce or Lead Generation Web site.

My blog "The Internet Strategist" is designed to fit within Inc.com's business model of generating revenue through advertising and things like events.

The blog of Tony Hsu, the CEO of Zappos, is designed to generate brand loyalty and increase sales of the products Zappos sells.

This blog also does double-duty, helping you the reader understand my areas of expertise as an Internet Strategist, which my company message medium hopes will help us generate more consulting, Web site design and construction, and Internet marketing clients as well as attendees in our classes.

So the first thing you have to identify when considering blogging is — what kind of business do I have and how do we stay afloat? How do we generate revenue? This will help you determine your ultimate blogging purpose.

Next time — I'll discuss "The Big Payoff" what can you expect a blog to actually accomplish for you?

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A Female Spin on Starting a Business

Normally I don’t focus on male- or female-specific entrepreneurial challenges, but having received two books by women entrepreneurs in the last few weeks, I thought it was a good time to review this topic.

Entrepreneur Susan T. Spencer grew her first business in the late 1960’s when her self-designed tennis dress caught on in popularity. A divorcee with kids to support, she took on a partner who drove her business into the ground – by selling too much!

“Cash flow and partnerships are key lessons I learned early. Don’t ever go into a 50-50 partnership if you don’t have a great lawyer and a clear understanding of where the business is going. In fact, you should probably never have 50-50 ownership. Come up with a list of responsibilities each is willing to take. If 99% are on one person’s side, and the rest are on the other side – that’s a problem with that partner – don’t do the deal.” Spencer’s partner, a man, refused to listen to her and the company was unable to supply the product to stores.

On cash flow, Spencer said “One of the most important things about cash flow, and I was in business for 4 years before I figured this out, is to know the terms companies are setting, what they’re going to pay you, and when. I didn’t know at the time that department stores paid net 90 days, and that sunk me.” Spencer’s book, Briefcase Essentials has a number of tips that women can use to leverage their talents and abilities to help them grow their own businesses or careers. Her site also has a link to some of her useful YouTube videos.

Spencer went on to a career as the first Woman General Manager of an NFL team, the Philadelphia Eagles (admitting that her dad owned the team and let her work up through the ranks.) From there, she bought and built up companies in the meat industry and the trucking industry, both stereotypically male fields.

Spencer told me “I think women have a need to understand that when they are in a business, they need to grow it, not baby-sit it. If you don’t grow, you don’t have power. When you grow, when you add employees and grow your bottom line, you get opportunity to do what you do well and let others do their work.”

Carol Roth, business strategist and author of the The Entrepreneur Equation, isn’t a fan of having women-only networking (or women-only business books.) “Women shouldn’t have a league of their own,” said Roth. “What we’re up against is an old boys network in a new digital age. Look at the Web 2.0 company boards, and there are no women, even though it is widely quoted that more women than men participate in social media. The concept of women’s groups can be damaging for your career as it singles out women as a “special needs” group. It’s like sitting at the kids’ table during holiday dinner. Instead of joining the women’s group, don’t be afraid to grab your seat at the men’s table, even if you are the only women. You need to establish those relationships if you want to play in the same league.”

Having played in the real big leagues, Spencer would definitely agree with that last point. “Do not try to be a man. It’s not effective and it wastes your talent,” Spencer told me. “If you do homework and you’re disciplined and detailed, you’ll succeed with male suppliers and customers. When you’re the expert, men will come to you for information and will rely on you for it.”

Roth’s book drops on March 22nd, and Spencer’s book was supposed to be on sale next week (but I see it listed as available via several online book sites.)

What do you think would be helpful to women starting businesses? Let us know in the comments.

A note: I’m doing some interesting stuff this week over on Twitter and increasing my interactions on my Facebook Fan Page – are you following @HowardGR?

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Top Twitter Techniques (or 9 Good Excuses if you want to Ignore Twitter)

In my view Twitter, like many marketing and social media tools, is basically a stage. How you present yourself upon it depends on what talents you have and what you're trying to accomplish.

Below, I've outlined 9 methods of interacting on Twitter. This list should either allow you to comfortably ignore Twitter because none of these methods of interaction are feasible or meaningful for you, or recognize an opportunity for yourself or your business.

The Personality
This applies both to actual celebrities, and people who are building a brand that can be clearly defined as having a "voice". People like Perez Hilton, Oprah Winfrey and Tony Hsieh of Zappos immediately come to mind. All of them have Twitter feeds and each of them has a very distinct voice. "In waiting room at doctor's office. In addition to magazines, they should offer a selection of paint so people can watch it dry." A recent post from the CEO of a company with projected 2008 revenues of $1 billion. People follow these feeds for a variety of reasons but mainly because they receive something emotionally satisfying from the postings.

The Guide
The Guide is typically a person or people assigned to seek out messages posted by people who have a question related to your business, products or services. Here is a great case study of a company who did just that and has shared their results. Note that to maximize their efforts they have someone spending 30 minutes per day on Twitter in this role.

The Brand Watchdog
Someone proactively seeks out mentions of their company name or product name and responds personally to each post. Two companies that immediately come to mind are GeekSquad Founder Robert Stephens (thanks @DanielRiveong and @britopian) and ComCast's Director of Digital Care Frank Eliason @ComCastCares. Companies can win big brownie points by having very senior staff members respond to customer service questions. The idea here is that by providing direct access to someone who really knows what they're talking about, companies can prevent damage to their brand from disappointed customers.

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The Customer Support Rep
Very similar to the Brand Watchdog, this too is focused on watching for and responding to customer service questions. But while I would put Frank Eliason in the Brand Watchdog category, this category is usually filled by the unsung Twitter heros (Twiroes?). They are likely handling questions in other (non-Twitter) venues and have added Twitter to the ways they communicate. The catch here is that the expectation is that Twitter customer service reps will actually help you resolve your issue. We'll see how long that lasts!

The Publisher
People and companies will often use Twitter as a way to simply feed followers information about their area of influence. A lot of news is now breaking on Twitter before it hits major publications. But you don't have to be first, just relevant and somewhat consistent. A really interesting take on the publisher model is The Brooklyn Museum who is monetizing their social content and their community by offering memberships to a "socially networked museum membership" for $20 per year.

The Promotion Channel
Unfortunately I think both spammers and ecommerce sites fit into this category. But the ecommerce sites I've seen use Twitter in interesting ways to do promotion and inform customers about products they are interested in. Take a look at Amazon on Twitter. Their feed is a little bit all over the place in terms of content and they don't have an individual person that followers can connect with (which limits conversation and can limit your follower numbers) but they've still managed to collect almost 4,000 followers as of this article. Contests, Twitter only discount codes, free giveaways are all part of the promotion channel arsenal.

The Conversationalist
Many of the most popular "tweet"ers are those who actively engage with their followers. In essence this is what really makes Twitter unique as a communication tool, although it's also what scares the bejeezus out of small business owners. Being the Conversationalist can be very time consuming, but the rewards are high in terms of building a loyal following and truly connecting with people who are interested in what you have to offer, from whom you are interested in learning and with whom you can build strategic relationships. We're talking several posts per day many of which are directed at specific people.

The Curious
There are many people who don't post to twitter at all. They use it as an information resource, watching the "twitter trending topics" to "crowd source" their news or following people they find interesting or informative. This can be a great way to use Twitter and learn a thing or two. The key here is to be careful about who you follow — you want people with a high signal to noise ratio usually with far fewer posts but each post is a gem.

The Entertained
Again here it's not about posting information but consuming it. There are many feeds on Twitter (The Onion is one of my favorites) that are purely about entertainment, putting a smile on your face or making you think.

As you'll no doubt notice, some Twitter strategies combine these methods.

The Conclusion

If you are not interested in any of the 9 methods above then Twitter is probably not for you. But really the best way to find out is to use it. Sign yourself up - it takes only a couple of minutes to sign up and if you're looking for somewhere to start, start following me and then look at other people who follow me. You don't have to know someone to follow them. You can even sign up under what I like to call an "incognito name" — a name that won't be associated with you or company so that you can experiment without worrying about making an embarrassing mistake. After a few weeks drop the incognito account and sign up with accounts branded for you and/or your company.

The Future?

On a more serious note, I can't help noting how many meaningful events have occurred in the last few weeks, and the very different way we experienced them. I am struck with the realization that every real moment can be played out near real time on a global scale.

These little 12-17 inch screens and keyboards we've become so intimate with, that bring close the lives of far away friends, over the last two weeks opened up a world of individuals sharing their grief, and made a political maelstrom that might before have seemed "far away," personal in a way many of us have never experienced.

As people, we know instinctively that how the world makes it's way into our lives is changing, dramatically. And not just how it reaches us, but where it comes from, who filters it (if anyone), how we seek it out and find it, that we can share it, comment on it, alter it and then pass it along. As people we struggle with concepts like authenticity while trying to grasp the ever-slipping confines of the personal within the ever-growing realm of the public.

And while those lines are being blurred and redefined, as businesses we must be careful not to loose sight of the very human, once personal context in which we're operating more and more. I think it's keeping sight of this context which in part keeps us authentic and relevant - regardless of the tools we use. While some debate whether or not Twitter is useful, others are simply putting it to work, filling a need, and reaching an audience they would never have reached before.

I thought something I read recently put it well:

"Asking when Twitter will end is like saying, 'When will the cell phone fad end'?...The value of cell phones can't end, it only can be replaced by something that provides the same value and more. Once we have a capability, we never want it taken away from us." -- David Spark, founder of Spark Media Solutions

While you definitely can learn from how others are using tools like Twitter both successfully and unsuccessfully, keep in mind that a) the communication is still yours b) the content is still yours c) everyone is still figuring this stuff out so don't be afraid to dip your toe in the water and don't be afraid to make a few mistakes d) do try to remember that there are humans on the other side of that message. There is something they probably want and want from you. What is it that they're looking for?

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Link Building - What to Do

So now that we know that Link Farming is bad and reciprocal links may have limited value, how do we convince other Web sites to link to us without linking back to them?

One Directional Link Sources

First - where can you get these one directional links? Great places include:

Industry directories — sites that are directories of other sites in a particular industry

About.com — often has directories and provides information about a wide variety of industries and specific, niche topics

Event Sites - for events you are hosting or where you are a sponsor or speaker

Online PR — PR sites, or sites that have an article written by you or about you

Library sites — if you have content that is relevant to a particular topic and for a wide range of people libraries often offer great directories and resource lists

Blogs — if you have a product or service that is exciting and you can get a blogger to write about it.

Review Sites — if you have a product that can be reviewed.

If your site has a lot of free and useful content you will have a much easier time getting incoming, one directional links.

How to Ask for a Link

Also if you plan to reach out to other sites to link to you, make sure you use the right approach.

Consider "deep linking" - invite linkers to link to a specific page of relevant content rather than linking to your home page. This is usually far more appealing for bloggers and other content sites.

Make the contacts personal — avoid sending blanket emails to sites. Write personal emails or consider calling. Consider establishing a relationship over time. The extra time it takes you to do this will force you to be more selective in the sites you choose to reach out to.

Choose carefully — getting a link can be a lot like pitching a story to a magazine or even like cold calling. Make sure you have done your research and confirmed that your content is right for the site you're contacting. The last thing you want to do is create bad will by blanketing sites that have no interest in what you do.

Have something noteworthy and specific to offer — remember that in general, noone cares about your latest product or your newest client. I know that sounds harsh but it's unfortunately true. You have to find a reason for them to care. Find something interesting, unique, exciting, personal or noteworthy that would make people want to link to you.

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The Power of Thank You

I wanted to use my last column of the year to discuss the value of "Thank You." Many start-ups and small businesses survive and thrive via referrals and word of mouth. I'll use a personal example today to show how one business keeps its word-of-mouth pipeline full.

Earlier this year, our home air conditioning system failed during one of the hottest periods of the summer. We called our regular air conditioning and heating service, and they dispatched a technician who could not fix the problem. Seems the fan motor was bad, the unit was old, and they could not remove the fan blade from the motor. It was going to be at least a week to find a new fan and motor part, get someone out there, and get us some relief. And to add insult to injury, it was going to cost north of $600 in addition to the current service charge.

At that point, angry, frustrated and very, very hot, I went searching for an alternative. I contacted the company that makes our air conditioning unit, and they referred me to a web page with authorized local techs. A small independent shop answered my call, and the owner himself came out to fix the problem the next day (incredible in that heatwave). Somehow, he was able to remove the fan from the motor, and he had a spare motor in his truck that was a suitable substitute. In addition to the quick fix he provided, he was courteous, quick, and paid attention to small touches like removing his shoes before coming in from outside where the cooling unit is located. As a bonus, his work cost was about half our regular company's quote. As the air conditioner started to cool our house, we were very satisfied customers.

As a small business columnist, I always like to talk to owners about business and challenges. My technician works in a family-owned business that has a very small staff, and he does most of the repair and contracting work himself. He does little marketing, but told us that a way to thank him was to refer him to other customers - most of his business comes from word of mouth.

Fast forward a week or so later, and I'm commuting to New York on a train, when I see a neighbor. He told me he was having an air conditioning system issue. I referred our new service tech, and my neighbor hired him. A few weeks later the neighbor told me the tech had replaced their entire unit. The cost was in line with what he had expected, work was done professionally, and he was quite happy with the way things turned out.

I might have forgotten this whole incident until this week, when I received a holiday card from the technician with a hand written thank you for the specific referral and a Home Depot gift card encouraging us to keep passing him to other who might need air or heating work done.

Now, I don't need to be bribed to refer someone who does good work, but this showed me how this tech keeps his pipeline full. He uses the power of "Thank You" to keep people thinking about him. There are so many different ways to do this, from gifts to notes, emails, and especially to referring business back to those who sent you work.

I hope you can benefit from this quick lesson in the spirit of the holidays. I also wanted to take a moment to thank you for spending time reading this column, commenting, passing my writing on, connecting with me on Facebook and Twitter, and most of all, working hard on your start-ups. You inspire me every week and keep me working on this column.

I wish you much success in the new year!

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