January 25, 2012 - Posted by Shama
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Forget about work for a moment. What device should you get if you just want to read a book? Marketing pro Shama Kabani offers her take.
Editor’s note: The marriage of technology and communication has been a boon to savvy entrepreneurs, but it’s also a huge challenge for those who aren’t sure how to navigate social networks. To help, Dallas-based entrepreneur and tech expert Shama Kabani is answering your questions. Email her at shama@marketingzen.com, or check out more of her advice at her online marketing company or on video.
Dear Shama,
I am a voracious reader, and as my library gets out of control, I am seriously considering an e-reader, but I am not a techie. At first I was trying to decide between the Kindle or the iPad, but my neighbor suggested the Nook. What are the differences, and what do you recommend for an old-school reader like me?
—Jake L, Vancouver
To read more about Ask Shama: Kindle, Nook, or iPad?, check out the article on Portfolio.com.
January 17, 2012 - Posted by Shama
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Striking a balance between strong branding and effective social-media marketing can be a delicate proposal. Portfolio.com’s marketing expert Shama Kabani simplifies the task with some old-fashioned human interaction.
Editor’s note: The marriage of technology and communication has been a boon to savvy entrepreneurs, but it’s also a huge challenge for those who aren’t sure how to navigate social networks. To help, Dallas-based entrepreneur and tech expert Shama Kabani is answering your questions. Email her at shama@marketingzen.com, or check out more of her advice at her online marketing company or on video.
Dear Shama,
I am now in the second decade of my business, and I feel like I need to refresh my brand. Instead of having a company name like Molly’s IT Group, I should change it to Hire Me For IT Services and use this same tag for my Twitter, Facebook, and website. It tells people what I do and sets the tempo. Can you provide guidance on how effective this new branding will be in social media and overall business marketing?
—Madeline, Washington, DC
To read more about Ask Shama: Branding and Social Media – What’s the Right Combination?, check out the article on Portfolio.com.
January 3, 2012 - Posted by Amy Rose Brown
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There are some really, really outstanding examples of corporate blogs out there. Of course, for every example of a really great corporate blog, there’s an equally awful one floating around out there too. Your blog can be a powerful tool for communicating with your target audience, so don’t just blog for the sake of blogging. Here are some dos and don’ts do help you improve your blogging strategy.
Think of a company. Any company, even your company. Do you want to have a conversation with it? Of course you don’t, because people like to talk to other people. Keep this in mind when you’re blogging, because your blog shouldn’t sound like or actually be a string of press releases. You or your bloggers should craft a unique voice and use it when drafting new blog posts. Show a little personality! Your readers will appreciate it much more than they will a jargon-heavy wall of text.
If a consumer just wants to know about your company, they’ll go to your main website. If they come to your blog and find the exact same content regurgitated over and over, they’re probably not going to stay very long (or ever come back). How do you avoid this? Write about topics of interest to your target audience that aren’t necessarily about your company. Ask yourself: “If my customers are interested in my industry, what blog topics would interest them?” On a similar note, although an interesting blog is an effective online marketing tool, it shouldn’t read like marketing tool. What does that mean? If your blog excites people, it’ll market your business better than if you try to overtly sell things to them.
Make sure your blog’s comments are open to facilitate conversations between you and your readers. Once your blog comments are open, you’re sure to receive a wide range of feedback. You’ll hear good things and bad things, and there will definitely be spam. Make sure all members of the team monitoring and updating your blog understand your comment policy: you’ll at least want to have one banning spam comments, and you may also want to ban offensive and hateful comments.
You’ll want to make sure that social sharing buttons are easy to locate, so your readers can pass along useful content to their networks. Similarly, links to your company’s social media sites should be prominently displayed on your blog. This will allow your blog readers to stay connected with you on other networks, which may get updated more often than your blog.
You should already be used to tracking data on your other online marketing efforts. Your blog is no exception. At the very minimum, you should be tracking referral sources, site traffic, and top posts. This will help you adjust your messaging to include what your readers most want to learn about.
Although starting a corporate blog is a great way to generate recurring traffic, this will not happen overnight. This will not happen in the first week, either. If you consistently provide valuable content, you could start to generate recurring traffic in the first few months. Blogging isn’t a quick fix for your marketing strategy – it’s something you need to devote time and resources to.
For any corporate bloggers out there, what would you add to our list of tips?
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