So, if everything still went forward in a positive way without BLOGGING why am I BLOGGING right now?  Well, the one area that did drop off was where my company is listed on search results on-line.  With a website that was created with FLASH for a more visual appeal, I knew that my site would not come up high on searches by itself.  So, my BLOGGING and my time spent on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and now Google+ and listing a link on many free sites is my way of helping Purple Diamond to be found by local businesses via the internet.  So, to enhance my website with fresh new content which helps with searches I will continue to BLOG!

What is your reason for BLOGGING or not BLOGGING?

All my best to your success!

Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond”

Chances are the answer to that question is a little of both and as a marketing coach I think that is a wise answer.  Though we all want to help our businesses succeed and gain strong market share, the “doing something because everyone else is doing it” is not a sound marketing strategy for your small or mid size business.  Consider the cost and weigh out the effectiveness of the various on-line marketing trends to see what makes the most sense to capture your target audience.  If you are busy writing a blog each day and your stats are low for readership and it doesn’t seem to be getting your website noticed or phone ringing, then this time might be better used in a more productive way.  However, if you are in a technical field that draws your targeted audience with quality content on a blog or by publishing white papers, then using time to write on-line could be essential for your business. The key is to measure results and analyze what is working and what you can afford.  To spend heavily to come up high in rankings on search engines without closing sales or to over burden your staff with phone calls that are “tire kickers” and not real prospects is not helping your bottom line.  But, if you are a small store and you lack walk-in traffic on a rainy day and you find that an on-line presence using Facebook and Twitter has helped drive prospects to your shopping cart on your website, then this new on-line marketing strategy is a “dream”!

Dream or headache or maybe it is both! Technology in marketing continues to move at a rapid pace and often we want to jump in and use it before we have even questioned if it is something that will help our business.  Attend seminars, talk with other business owners in your area, research on-line and consult with marketing and advertising professionals to help you decide what is “hot” and what is “not” for your business.  Technology will help you in your marketing, but be sure you know what technology tools are the best for your business and avoid the urge to use something just because others are and it is new!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Charlene St. Jean, Purple Diamond LLC

Many businesses have added a blog feature to their company website as a way to help with their on-line rankings with Google and other search engine sites.  Blogging is an excellent way to enhance  your on-line marketing, but the comments that are received from people who visit your blog might be hurting your rankings if they are from sites that have a reputation of spamming.  There are automatic spam solutions that are built in to many blog formats, but often there is still a small percentage of creative spammers who get passed these filters.  For this reason you should always make sure that you have turned on the comment moderation option so that you actually review the posters’ comment before accepting and adding it to your site.  Another way to cut down on SPAM is to not allow any hyperlinks in the comments left or have only people who actually are listed as approved followers be able to leave comments.

When the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was first launched I had a limited understanding of what were true comments or SPAM and I quickly got excited by the volume of comments being left on the site. Thankfully, I am surrounded by technical expertise and I quickly learned that what I was accepting for comments to my earliest articles were clear examples of SPAM and that I was hurting my site in rankings.  My technical team added the SPAM filters and instructed me on the importance of only accepting quality comments.  How do you know if a comment is a quality comment or SPAM? Well, if the comment is a random comment that is not specific to the content of your blog article or it is an advertisement for a product it is safe to say that this is a spam comment and should not be allowed on your site.  Some SPAMMERS use more sophisticated programs and offer comments that might be linked to keywords in your article or on your blog so be sure that the comment has direct meaning to the posted article they have commented on.  An example recently that I received that was clear SPAM started off with this message: ” I always read jewellry related blogs, but your blog contains nice information about jewellry”. Beyond the spelling error of the word “jewelry” within this comment, anyone who reads my Purple Diamond Marketing Blog articles know that it has nothing to do with jewelry.  “Purple Diamond” is  the name of my advertising agency/marketing coaching business, but my messages are geared towards offering helpful information about marketing.

The key to successful blogging as a marketing tool is to build interest in your company and the readership to your blog while offering a platform to interact with existing and potential customers.  Comments that are posted that will pull down your rankings because search engine sites identify them as sources that are sending bulk junk messages to numerous blogging sites will detract from your sites ability to come up higher in searches.  Be sure to have SPAM filters in place and delete any SPAM comments that get passed the filters that do not directly relate to your article!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

My objective when starting my Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was to learn more about the process of blogging and see where it would benefit my clients.  This objective was successful in that I not only learned how to set-up a blog, maintain and improve my site, collect data and analyze  stats to determine the best times of day to post blogs,  but it also gave me insights to the number of hours necessary to produce and promote a blog.  All of this information I was able to pass on to my clients, use it to assist them with their own blogging, and also use as a revenue source with speaking engagements for Purple Diamond.

This is all great for my company, but can YOUR business benefit with blogging consistently? I answer this question with a question……do you have something of value to offer a targeted audience?  If you say no and do not believe you have a message to share about your business or product, then the New Year might be the year to contact a professional to help you determine if your business is viable in today’s market.  Beyond the obvious mechanical plus to blogging that you will be noticed more by search engines with a site that is constantly updating and adding new content,  blogging is a powerful way to reach your potential targeted market with a message they are choosing to hear over being bombarded with cold calls, email blasts, advertisements and other attempts to get them to notice your company or product.  If you consistently write and promote your blog to your targeted audience, the process of selling prospects your services or products gets easier.  Even if you call on a potential prospect that has never followed your blog, referring them to the blog and having them see a site that has numerous articles and positive comments about the content will increase your chances of landing the account.  You are able to offer detailed information as to why your product or service is the best choice.

New technology offers new ways to market your business.  As you plan the New Year and your marketing strategy for 2011 and beyond, it is really important that your business considers the new ways to market your message using this technology and what may have worked in the past.  So, my New Year’s advice to businesses that are not having the sales they wished they had, look closely at what is working and what you still need to add to your marketing mix!

Today there are over 144 million blogs and many Bloggers quit within 2 years.  Why is a Blog important for your business today even if you are a small business in a local market? Well, it will definitely help to generate exposure for your business if you are also using other social media tools in which you promote it from and it will increase traffic to your website and business and increased search rankings.  You will generate qualified leads because they will know more about your business by your Blog posts and you will stand out in your field if you are the only one who is Blogging.  Business partnerships and connecting with other Bloggers is also a helpful plus for why you might want to have a business Blog.  Finally, my own Blog helped me to recognize what were the hot marketing topics that Business owners were interested in by watching the higher traffic to those articles.  I then used this information to adapt my services and product offering and marketing collateral to include this so that I gained more clients instantly.

It is important to have a strategy for your Blog and a business goal and metrics to measure if you are meeting these goals.  Other key points to consider before you launch your Blog: know your Blog topic or industry well, enjoy writing or have someone on your staff who is a decent writer, keep your Blog active even if it means having shorter Blog posts, use key words that support your marketing strategy and PROOF READ! Finally, be sure to thank those who read your Blog and ask them to share it with others.

Thanks for reading the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Like dieting, you understand the importance of taking care of your health and maintaining a healthy weight and eating right is all part of that.  Blogs are the same, they can have a tremendous impact for the health of your business in that it allows you to communicate and build a loyal following to the brand of your business without spending money on advertisement that most consumers are trying to avoid.  The blog gives you a voice and also consistent traffic to your website that could lead to more business and it also helps your site with popularity ratings which improves your status or ranking with on-line searches.  However, not everyone is blogging or those who are may not be consistent and this reminds me of dieting [something I have done most of my life without too much success].  Right after the New Year you meet so many excited dieters who have dreams of fitting in to a smaller bathing suit by spring or losing some weight and feeling healthier. The local weight loss groups are standing room only and the advertisement on TV is filled with the latest and greatest diets and exercise equipment that will bring you instant success on the road to being healthy, or so they claim.

Does everyone fail at diets or having a blog? No! The key to being successful at both is to develop a system that will work for you in that you incorporate the new activity in your daily life.  This blog post is being written at 5am and if I went to the athletic club I know I would find people working out before they are heading to work or at the end of their busy work day.  For the serious blogger and dieter, finding a time that works for your schedule to include the new activity helps you to be successful.  You have to plan for blogging even though the activity does not require much preparation other than having an idea to write about and access to your WordPress account or whatever program you are using for your blog.  However, please know that I have seen many serious minded business owners vow to post regularly on their blog and when I check their sites the last entry is far from current because it just has not become the priority to the day to day operation of their business.  To blog consistently you have to be willing to schedule time to write the post much like eating healthy or working out at a health club.  Unless you have been writing your entire life this new activity will be challenging on days that you are busy [what day are you not busy?] and on days when you are handling big projects with lots of added stress that inhibits your ability to come up with a new blog topic to post about.

The one thing I will say to those who have started a blog and now realize that you just are not cut out for blogging or do not have the resources to hire someone who will write your blog for your business, ask your web designer to remove the active link or tab on your home page to your blog.  Having your website indicate that there is a blog and allowing people to click on to the site and see the last entry was 6 or 8 months ago is not helping your business.  And, for those who are reading this and want to have a blog you have to know when you will have time to actually write the posts. You may love to work out in the early mornings which shows you can keep to a schedule and are committed to remaining healthy, but when will you write your blog posts to keep you business blog healthy and up to date? The key to success in blogging is having time in your schedule to commit to blogging or being willing, as I do, to get up early in the morning or work later in the evening to create a new entry to my blog.

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Til this past week I didn’t honestly think anyone did this on their company blog, but I found out it is quite common and something that laws were created to protect….using other people’s articles without their written permission on YOUR blog .  Now, I am not talking about taking a short quote and placing it in your blog or adding a hyperlink to someone’s website where more information is found, I have seen blogs that people unknowingly grabbed an article of interest and posted the entire article in their blog with the name of the author listed.  YIKES!  If you are doing this you need to stop unless you have written consent from the author.  When I started my blog a few months ago I was actually asked by another blogger if he could grab articles to post to his site and I gave him written permission in an email as long as he gave me credit for the work.   I knew the purpose of my blog was to help business people be successful and having other bloggers post my articles would be in-line with my mission statement so permission was granted.  However, many bloggers are trying to build their own brand and traffic to their website and are not wanting their work posted as a way to build another site. So, there is a copyright law out there to protect them and was passed in 1978 that protects their written work that is posted on the internet even if you do not see a copyright notice and it has some heavy finds attached to it.  [note: I am not a lawyer so please review this with yours to verify this information and learn more.]

I am assuming many of the bloggers that I see who are posting other people’s work are not aware of the laws. They might be new to on-line social networking and have a Twitter account and see people Re-Tweet links or they are on Facebook and have used the share option to take what one person has posted and then re-post it on their own profile page, so they get the impression that everything on the internet is FREE and there to share.   Building your brand with a blog is powerful, but if you are using someone’s thoughts to offer information you are not helping your business. To gain market share and to be seen as a expert in your field requires you to have your own thoughts and offer your own expertise.  If the reason you are posting articles from someone else is because you are too busy to create your own, then I suggest you either get written permission from the author, make time for blogging by prioritizing it in your work week, hire a staff blogger, hire a ghost writer, or take the blog off-line until you have this problem solved.  The last thing you need is to ruin the business reputation you have built by using someone’s work without permission.

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

[note: my blog is not written by a Ghost Writer, but I have written a few blog posts for clients who needed help. ]

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

If you are not looking at your stats and seeing the growth to your site then stop reading this and go to your Dashboard of your own blog and please get to know your own site.  I use WordPress so it is very easy to see it in the “At a Glance” section.  If only your IT support person has seen the backside of your blog and you are just writing and having them post this to your site you should be requesting reports from the person who is assisting you.  You need the numbers to help you make an informed decision on how frequently your company needs to blog. As a marketing professional I will share that the more frequently & consistently you blog, the better stats you will have providing what you are posting is worth reading and sharing with others. And, if you are not using other sources like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc, to give a “shout-out” to your own blog topic you are working hard and not smart.  I do not post a topic without Tweeting about it or sharing it with my fans on Facebook and friends on Linkedin. I also have the link as part of my signature for my emails and I verbally talk about my blog ALL the time. It is not a personal diary, though there may be some blogs that people are using as a journal without focusing on getting readers, but if you are using this as part of your business marketing strategy you have to self-promote and ask others to share.

So, for myself, I will still be blogging over the holidays and vacations, but it might not be as steady as I do during the work week.

All my best to your success!
~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”