Monday, February 1, 2016

Does your blog offer these 5 types of content?

There’s a reason I’m so romantic about blogging: It works.

I’ve seen it for myself and for my clients. I have one set of clients who have been blogging for only a few months. Just last week, they received a lead from their website for a service that they had blogged about just a few days before.

Coincidence? I think not.

If a company’s blog post provides a solution for a problem you have, wouldn’t you be likely to buy through its website? I would. That’s what makes blogging and content marketing so darn powerful.

The challenge is coming up with the content that makes sense for your business (and finding time to create it).

To get started, I strongly recommend creating a content plan for your blog. As you build the topics you’re going to write about, think about how you’re going to present the information.

Here are five types of content you should include in your blog:

1. Educational posts

Educational content should be the backbone of your content marketing efforts. These posts can be how-to guides and answers to questions your clients and prospects commonly face.

Think about the questions you frequently get from clients. It’s likely that your prospects have these same questions. Your job is to answer them; the goal is to sell through education.

Here are some ideas:

  • Help readers break down complex issues in a way that’s easy to understand.
  • Explain recent changes in your industry (e.g., health care reform, law changes, tax updates, etc.).
  • Offer tools or resources that would be useful to your prospects.
  • Provide a step-by-step guide to solving a common problem.
  • Show unique ways your product or service could be used.

Creating content that helps people solve problems and better understand the work you do will benefit you.

RELATED: WEBINAR: Cisco shares its best brand journalism and social media tips from its corporate blog.

2. Expertise/innovation posts

You don’t want a blog that’s full of “me-too” content. Plant a flag for what you believe as an organization. Taking a stand on issues and offering original opinions and ideas can differentiate you from your competitors.

Write original, thought-provoking content to showcase your knowledge and mindset.

People want to know they are working with talented experts, and this kind of content will demonstrate your capabilities.

Here are ideas on how to do this:

  • Call attention to problems in your industry, and discuss what you’re doing to help solve them.
  • Offer a different view or angle on a popular topic. Don’t be afraid to be contrarian.
  • Share your opinion on how recent news or events affect your community or industry.
  • Write a manifesto that articulates what your organization stands for and why and how you approach things differently.
  • Discuss important trends, or make your own predictions about what trends people should watch. ( Here’s an example.)
  • Share industry data or research, and interpret what that means for your target audience.

These kinds of posts should be written somewhat sparingly, but they are an important component to successful blogging—especially if you want to position yourself as an expert and a go-to resource in your industry.

3. Humanizing posts.

Because blogging can help readers better connect with you and your company, you should include posts that help humanize your brand. Dedicate content to this idea, and weave storytelling and personality into everything you do.

There are many ways you could do this. Here are a few ideas:

  • Create videos to introduce key members of your team.
  • Develop a Q&A series that has employees answering the questions.
  • Show photos of your employees having fun together—at special events or on an average workday.
  • Share the community involvement of your staff members, or encourage people to join in your company’s fundraising efforts.
  • Tell the story of someone who benefited from the work you do.

Don’t be afraid to let your hair down and let your true colors shine through. Doing this will help people get to know you better and make them more likely to want to work with you.

4. Buying-decision posts

Because your blog is supposed to help you drive leads and business, you should also write content that will help readers make the decision to buy.

Think about questions that potential customers have. What do they ask about your products or services? What are their biggest reservations about buying?

Answer those questions to create powerful blog content.

Writing content that answers prospects’ questions will help them determine whether your business is a good fit for their needs. They are deciding whether they want to work with you.

Talk about pricing . If you provide this information, people will probably buy from you. It also could weed out unqualified leads.

Other ideas:

  • Compare your product or service against that of your competitors to help readers make an educated decision about the available options.
  • Write use cases that share ideas about how and when your service is a good fit for customers.
  • Talk about when your products or services are not a good fit for certain customers.
  • Write about the telltale signs that a company should seek a solution to a problem.

Here are examples of content I’ve written about the buying decision:

Each of these posts offers information to help someone determine which solution would be best for them. Think about how you can offer similar guidance through your blog.

5. Case studies and examples

One great way you can sell the work you do is by showcasing the results you’ve generated for others. Case studies are a great way to do just that. Sell your services by letting someone else to the talking.

If you’re unable to get case studies and client stories (for compliance reasons or otherwise), you could showcase examples of other people or businesses that are doing things right. People love to see how ideas or theories can be put to work—even if it’s not your own clients doing so.

The best overall approach is to integrate all of these types of posts into your blog. Not only will the varied types of content appeal to different audiences, but they also will help readers who are at different stages of the buying process.

A version of this article first appeared on the Blue Kite Marketing blog.

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Newsroom software boosts sausage maker's PR and recruiting

Johnsonville Sausage is searching for a spokesperson of unusual qualifications.

The ideal “bratcaster” candidate has a communications or theater degree, possesses marketing and emcee experience, and is willing to travel the country with a 26-ton sausage grill on wheels, talking up brats.

How, though, does a company find a communicator person who can both ace TV interviews and offer cooking advice over a smoking grill? Johnsonville posted a video touting the position.

“This is your office,” the company’s retiring grill master, Ryan Allison, says in the video. “It’s 55 feet long and weighs 53,000 pounds. … You’re going to attend some of the greatest events in the U.S., like the Kentucky Derby, NASCAR races, NFL games—you name it. You’ll be there.”

In three weeks the YouTube post has had more than 3,100 views—not bad for a recruitment video. The sausage-maker published and promoted the video with the help of PressPage, a newsroom software platform that integrates with websites and makes updates and social media sharing easy. (PressPage is a Ragan partner.)

“It’s got to be easy for me to manage,” says Stephanie Dlugopolski, manager of public relations and social media at Johnsonville. “I’m a one-person shop, so the more efficient I can be in getting that content live is key, and the more accessibility and sharing options that I can offer our visitors, that is also critical.”

Flexible newsroom

Although a recruitment video isn’t Johnsonville’s usual fare, it does illustrate the flexibility of its newsroom. Dlugopolski’s primary interest in developing a social media newsroom was that the company publishes a lot of content that might interest reporters and the general public.

The sausage-maker offers promotions that it wants consumers to participate in, as well as “hard news"—that is, more traditional press announcements such as the one stating that ”Construction Begins on New Watertown, Wis. Facility.“

"We are a fun social brand,” Dlugopolski says. “We have a real strong connection to our consumers.”

Free download: Is it better to build or buy a solution for your organization’s newsroom?

One fun promotion—a partnership with Uber-brought three Italian grandmothers (“nonnas,” they are called) to Chicago in tiny houses on wheels and offered to deliver meals to lucky customers. (“Sausage Nonnas Sausaged Chicago!” Johnsonville’s newsroom announced.) With PressPage it was easy to feed the social media sites that supported the event, Dlugopolski says.

The stunt was eye-catching enough to draw an article in Ad Week, which also ran photos of the tiny houses scooting along a Chicago expressway, as well as videos of the cooking grannies.

“The stunt, orchestrated by Droga5, seems a little random, but the images of the nonnas in action are pretty amusing,” AdWeek stated. “They delivered sausage rigatoni, lasagna or Italian sausage and meatballs, by the way.”

(Well, maybe it only seems random if you’ve never had a home-cooked meal featuring Italian sausage.)

Publishing is no longer cumbersome

Publishing text, photos, three videos and other aspects of the stunt would have been a cumbersome process in the past-not a good thing in an Internet environment that demands immediate updates and social media sharing, Dlugopolski says.

“I did not have an option to upload visual content as well as regular content in a timely and simple manner,” she says.

PressPage makes it easy for reporters and others to download images. The software makes social media sharing possible and provides analytics, so Dlugopolski can see what is and how to shape future content.

The metrics demonstrate what works online and what doesn’t. “That helps me be smarter in terms of what kinds of content we put up in the future,” Dlugopolski says.

“Sausage nonnas,” for example, became one of Johnsonville’s greatest online successes. That success is seen elsewhere on the website as well.

“We definitely have seen an increased level of traffic and in our news and also an increased level of shares,” Dlugopolski says.

@ByWorking

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Infographic: Easy ways to improve your town hall meetings

Although a town hall meeting is supposed inspire and excite employees, this corporate ritual often does the opposite.

Workers typically see town halls as a wasted hour (or more) in which the CEO drones on and on about information that doesn’t seem to affect what they do every day.

If this sounds familiar, take a look at this infographic from Alive With Ideas. It recommends simple ways to upgrade your town halls so employees are interested and engaged and actually understand what the CEO is talking about and how it affects them.

Here are a few of the infographic’s suggestions:

  • Nix the jargon. Your CEO should be able to explain the business and how it’s doing in plain language. The less employees understand what their leaders are saying, the less engaged they’ll be in the town hall and their jobs.
  • Have a conversation. Your CEO shouldn’t spend the entire town hall talking at employees. Schedule time for people to ask questions so they are involved in a dialogue—not snoozing through a lecture.
  • Keep it simple. Don’t cram too much information into the town hall. Focus on a handful of topics that leaders can cover thoroughly.
  • Don’t forget to follow up. Send employees evaluation forms after the meeting to discover what they liked, disliked and remembered. Apply these insights to your next town hall, and make sure employees know you did.

Download this free white paper to discover smart ways to measure your internal communications and link your efforts to business goals.

What are your tips for a successful town hall? Check out the infographic below, and share your advice in the comments.

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Brand managers ride the wave as ‘Grease Live!’ TV ratings soar

Fox’s “Grease Live!” electrified Twitter on Sunday night for the entirety of its three-hour broadcast.

The star-powered musical—a hybrid of the 1971 Broadway production and 1978 movie—pulled in 12.2 million viewers and featured celebrities with significant online followings.

Vanessa Hudgens, who played Rizzo in Sunday’s performance, has 5.7 million devoted Twitter followers, and Julianne Hough (Sandy) has nearly 1.2 million. Marketing technology group Amobee reported that these two names were among the top three mentioned in the nearly 1,400,000 Tweets using the #GreaseLive hashtag.

TV networks including Fox and NBC have marketed the live-musical format to sway viewers from using ad-skipping digital video recorders. This has proved successful in both ratings and engagement online. Brand managers are also getting in on the online action that surrounds these live broadcasts.

Rather than simply mentioning the hashtag to establish a presence online, some social media marketers opted to take a more clever, event-themed approach:

Other social media pros opted to target specific cast members, most notably Vanessa Hudgens, whose father died the morning of the performance. The #VanessaHudgens hashtag pulled in 90,756 tweets—the most of the night for any cast member. Netflix took a nostalgic approach, probably to endorse Hudgen’s claim to fame: “High School Musical.” The release is available on DVD through the site: Even small organizations such as this local movie theater in Minneapolis used the hashtag: After the ratings rolled in, Fox worked to keep the “Grease Live” conversation going online: RELATED: Turn your social campaign into an award-winning social campaign. Enter now!

What do you think, Raganreaders? What did brand managers do well to capitalize on “Grease Live’s” audience—and what could they have done better?

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CDC closes probe into Chipotle’s E.coli outbreak

It’s the end of the investigation and the beginning of a marketing push.

Monday brought a sigh of relief to leaders and the crisis team at Chipotle, who have been besieged with E. coli and norovirus outbreaks and a federal probe into one of its California restaurants.

Online chatter began late Sunday when The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources and reported the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would announce that it has closed its investigation.

The CDC said “when a restaurant serves foods with several ingredients that are mixed or cooked together and then used in multiple menu items, it can be more difficult for epidemiologic studies to identify the specific ingredient that is contaminated.”

In a statement, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold, said:

We are pleased that the CDC has concluded its investigation, and we have offered our full cooperation throughout. Over the past few months we have taken significant steps to improve the safety of all of the food we serve, and we are confident that the changes we have made mean that every item on our menu is delicious and safe.

There has been no mention of the public health crisis on Chipotle’s website, but Monday brought mixed reaction on Twitter:


Following the announcement, Mashable reported that Chipotle’s stock fell from highs of nearly $800 before news of the outbreak to just more than half that as the bad press raged on. The stock surged 5 percent during midday trading Monday. (Holiday earnings are expected to be reported on Tuesday.)

Millennials show their brand loyalty

Investors may have been rattled about the health scares and media coverage, but the crisis didn’t deter teens and young adults from frequenting the fast-food chain. Bonnie Riggs, a restaurant industry analyst at NPD Group, said in a statement:

Young adults represent the largest share of Chipotle’s overall traffic. Their willingness to overlook any food safety concerns to eat at Chipotle could be a result of unabashed loyalty or lack of awareness. What our research tells us is that Chipotle has a strong loyal base from which to build its business back up relatively quickly. To win back the trust of their former customers, Chipotle will need to continually communicate all of the ways in which they are preventing any future outbreaks and prove to them that they able to deliver on their “food with integrity” promise.

Consumers who bailed on Chipotle were won over by Chick-fil-A, Wendy’s, Burger King and McDonald’s, said Riggs.

For consumers—and employees—who need reassuring, Arnold used his PR moment to point out that all Chipotle restaurants will be closed Feb. 8th. “We are hosting a national team meeting to thank our employees for their hard work through this difficult time, discuss some of the food safety changes we are implementing and answer questions from employees,” he said.

The whole enchilada

Some journalists had seized the opportunity to wordsmith the latest Chipotle news. This lede came from Seth Fiegerman at Mashable:

“The guac-pocalypse is over — at least for now.”

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12 unspoken rules of successful public speaking

People like me give out a lot of advice about public speaking—how to create great speeches, how to deliver them and how to build a professional speaking career.

All that is important, but there fundamental speaking lessons that tend not to be shared. In my effort to kick off 2016 powerfully for speakers everywhere, here are the unwritten public speaking rules you need for long-term happiness and success.

1. Always tell the truth. You’re not going to know everything, so don’t be afraid to embrace your limitations. If you don’t know, own up to it, and don’t worry.

2. Crush your topic. You’re not going to know everything, but it’s your job to know as much as you can. If you’re a speaker on carved gold rabbits, then you need to know as much as humanly possible about those rabbits. Read up.

3. By the end of the hour, you should be talking love. You get attention by identifying a problem and playing it up. Look at the current American presidential candidates; you’d be pardoned for thinking that Armageddon was around the corner if you took them seriously. By the end of the talk, you should be covering what it is that you love and what’s working in your world. Long-term careers are based on positive trajectories, not negative ones.

RELATED: Join speechwriters for three U.S. presidents in our executive comms and speechwriters conference in Washington, D.C.

4. You put your ideas out there; you can’t control what the audience does with them. It’s your job to present your case with passion. The audience has its own issues, and you have no control over the extent to which they take up your ideas or not. Success is making your case, not in getting the most votes—or even a standing ovation.

5. Keep it fresh. I once worked with a speaker who had been giving the same speech for 16 years—even making the same jokes. That’s not public speaking, that’s purgatory. It’s your job to keep renewing your talk with the latest developments in your field and with new approaches.

6. Keep practicing. Public speaking is not perfection; it’s connection. That means you must keep working on your game in order to make the connection stronger, always. Always be rehearsing.

7. It won’t go the way you expect. Military people say a strategy never survives the first shot. In the same way, a speech is always a contingency effort. Things will go wrong, or at least differently. You have to be prepared to change on the fly. Every time.

8. Forgive yourself for your mistakes. Try to spend as little time as possible after your presentation wishing that you had said or done something differently. Of course you should study and learn from your mistakes, but don’t beat yourself up. That won’t do anything for you except give you scar tissue.

9. Focus on the parts you love. Don’t do something—especially for the long term—because someone else tells you it’s the right thing to do. Do it because it matters to you.

10. You don’t always have to have a brilliant plan. It will look to you at times as though everyone else is doing better, making smarter decisions, getting paid more or getting better speaking venues. Don’t fall victim to Facebook Envy. Just keep tending your own garden. That’s your job.

11. Success is where you find it. If you let other people define your success, you’re always going to be chasing something you can’t catch. Your fans will be out there—if you’re working hard and presenting with passion. So open yourself up to the good things that are happening, not what you think is necessary for your success before you’ve begun the game.

12. Most successful people are successful because they work harder and stay longer than the others. Over and over again, I’ve seen professional speaking success go to the people that outwork everyone else. It’s not a game for the hobbyist. It’s why speakers actually earn those apparently outrageous hourly speaking fees—it’s not just an hour. There are many, many hours involved in getting to that podium.

Here’s wishing you all the success you deserve in 2016.

A version of this post first appeared on PublicWords.



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Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards are now open

It’s back and waiting for you to prove to your clients, managers and the world that you have the best PR and marketing strategy in the health care industry. We want to see the best in health care campaigns and communication media. Share your work—enter by Feb. 23 and save $50 per entry.

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