Yaffe Tidbits

How To Do Local Blogger Outreach The Right Way

Getting bloggers to talk about your product is a tricky thing. Getting social media influencers to talk about your product multiple times is even harder - especially if you're a regional or local brand, rather than a big national brand. The Suburban Collection of car dealerships is doing it in the Metro Detroit area and doing it well. And here's how.

Each weekend, they give a car from one of their dealerships to a local blogger and social media influencer as part of their social test drive program. In return, they ask that when you tweet, facebook, foursquare or whatever, you use the hashtag they created for the program: #SocialTestDrive. They don't put any restrictions on what you write or blog about, which is the only way to do it right. They let their product and service speak for itself and trust that it will result in a good experience for the recipient of the vehicle.

The Suburban Collection has only been doing this for about four weeks now, but they are already seeing good results. After their first week, they sold a couple vehicles as a direct result of the program. One of the guys who bought after following the first week's social test drive online said he came in because the experience he witnessed through the social channels seemed to be a good one. He had had a bad experience at Suburban in the past, but after reading the posts, he decided to give them another try. This time, he had a real good experience. The vehicle he bought wasn't even the one that was being test driven that weekend. But, the experience he'd followed through social media seemed good enough to give Suburban another shot.

"Our goal is to just be a part of the conversation," says Zac Holmes, Online Marketing Coordinator at Suburban. "People hang out online, live there, interact there - that's where you'll find them. We wanted to reach out to them in the space they're already occupying and connect them to our brand."

One of the smart things Suburban is doing is the way they recruit the people to participate in their program. They do it by having the person who just finished the program choose the next one, giving them the additional perk of sharing the experience with their friends. Plus, they get a list of influencers already vetted for them. Who else would know the local blogger/social media influencer landscape better than those who are a part of it.

"People are a lot more likely to believe a review if you hear it from someone you know or follow, rather than from the brand itself," said Holmes. "It's more realistic when it's coming from them. We also wanted to put people in vehicles they might not try otherwise. This makes driving part of the buying experience - whether it's actually driving the vehicle or driving it vicariously through following along with the driver online."

I have first hand experience in how the process works, since I participated in their social test drive program last weekend, driving a hybrid Honda Insight from Suburban Honda. I had followed the previous weekend's driver, fellow social media and ad guy, Bryan Willmert, on his social test drive (mostly through Instagram) and had enjoyed his story. Then, to my surprise the following week I got a tweet from both Zac and the Suburban Collection asking if I'd like to participate. Obviously, I said yes. And it was a pretty good experience.

They gave me a choice of several different brands. Once I chose Honda, they asked what I was driving and suggested four different models that I might like to test drive. I was interested in checking out their hybrid, the Honda Insight. When I showed up, they walked me through the vehicle and how to work all the options. They shot a video of me with the car and sent me on my way.

It was interesting to see the interaction I got. On my first day (last Friday), I had to go downtown Detroit for a lunch meeting. I tweeted out where I was going and the car I was in. I immediately got feedback via twitter. One person I know tweeted me that they were a half mile away from my meeting, could I stop by while there. I swung by and let him take the Insight for a tool around the city. Once that was done another tweeted for "nexties" and another wanted to see it and we hooked up the following day at the auto show. So, the most immediate feedback came via twitter - including from people outside of my own followers, people who were following the hashtag, either promoted by Suburban or via previous test drivers.

Longer discussions, with more in depth questions, came on the Facebook messages/pictures I posted. And for shear volume, my Instagram posts seemed to get the most reactions - including again, from people I had no idea who they were. They were just fans of the car or the brand.

Talking with Holmes, who works with four of the Suburban Collection dealerships in the Detroit area (Honda, Acura, Ford and Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram), his group has enthusiastically embraced the program and plans to continue it with one or two social test drivers each week. Judging from my experience and the reaction to it, I'd say they're on to something. It's a good way to connect with your local community in a very real way and really boost your share of conversation online. So, think about it. How can you accomplish the same for your local brand/client?

Mike McClure, Social Driver

Blogger outreach: Your secret weapon in the struggle for influence

Bloggers link directly to the hearts and minds of your customers. Equipped with intimate industry knowledge and engaging content, successful bloggers skyrocket to front pages of the search engines with the help from their dedicated army of readers. According to 2009 survey, 77% of active Internet users read blogs, which makes blogger outreachan effective tool for any organization interested in marketing a product or a service online.

Benefits

People like people. Bloggers are not brands, but real individuals who cover topics they are passionate about. Readers who follow a specific blog develop a trust-based relationship and become part of an interactive community surrounding it. Trust allows bloggers to effectively communicate your message better than any form of ads because it is viewed as word of mouth.

Targeted exposure. The biggest benefit of blogger outreach is talking directly into the ears of your customers. Successful blogs are niche-centered, and attract readers who are interested in that specific topic. This is segmentation at its best; you are conveying your business messages to the right people, at the right time. By writing about your product or brand in their post, bloggers can introduce a new product, increase brand awareness and even make your content go viral.

SEO. In addition to speaking directly to your audience in an environment where they are more engaged, you will reap the benefits of moving up in the SEO world. Links provided by the blogger in the post will boost your rating on search engines.

Creating a target list

The first step in blogger outreach is creating a list of bloggers in your niche. Each blogger has their own voice and viewpoint; keep an eye on the ones that fit your brand. Before you can start reaching out to bloggers, you need to crank out your excel file list. Aim for at least 100 blogs. New tools come out every day, but I have found these to be a good starter kit.

1. Technorati.comis a database which ranks blogs based on authority and groups they belong to. The authority score and blog rank will help you sort through influencers and their runner-ups.

2. Alltop.com is a good place to start if you don’t know what niche categories you are looking for. Alltop’s categories are numerous and clearly defined. Trending industry stories and top bloggers are listed on the top of each category page.

3 Google.com/blogsearch is an advanced Google search function targeting only blogs. This function will cover everything Alltop and Technorati missed.

4. Blogroll. Once you found a blog you like, it would be a good idea to check what other blogs the author links to. This list can be found on a right hand side of the page or in one of the headings and contains similar blogs to the one you are on. Additionally, check out if the blog belongs to any community or organization which would be indicated by a button or a link.

5. Alexa.com will help you measure the numerous lists of blogs you have acquired by providing statistics on ranking, reach and page views.

Filled with unshaken confidence, gallons of coffee, and a room packed with interns you are sure to come out victorious. What are your thoughts on blogger outreach? What tool was your favorite? Comment below to feed your local bloggers.

Dmitri Pivtorak, newest member of the Yaffe social media team.

Have You Thanked a Writer or Editor Lately? Now is the Time

The communications field is very broad in that it reaches industries such as PR, Marketing, Social Media, Journalism, Advertising, HR and more. Here at Yaffe we know the hard work that goes into those fields and we want to wish all of you a happy Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month!

In 1894, Lone Star Publishing, a Texas publishing company, deemed September Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month in order to create awareness and appreciation for the hard work that goes in to writing and editing. Being communicators ourselves, we know lots of writing and editing happens in our everyday lives, as well as our professional lives. So we'd like to celebrate both our work and the work of others. You can too!

Here are some ways to be kind to editors and writers this month:

1. Share their work: by retweeting their links on twitter, by creating Facebook updates that include their links and by leaving comments on blog and article posts.
2. If you are in a gift-giving mood, pitch in on buying a writer the newest edition of the AP stylebook. It’s under $20!
3. Offer writers ideas on what they can write about next. There’s a term called writer’s block and it’s never fun. Getting ideas from others is always helpful and it also helps a writer figure out what their audience is itching to read about.
4. If a writer asks you to proofread their work, even though you aren’t familiar with the subject matter, still proof it. Writers love feedback!
5. Were you touched by a written piece? Send a note to the writer about how you were moved by their words.

There are plenty of other ways to be kind this month like getting writers a fresh set of pencils and red pens for editing, or a box of chocolate, because who doesn’t love a good snack, right?

To everyone who has ever written a book, article, blog post, script or proposal, we salute you. Enjoy your month, editors and writers!

What other ways can you think of to say thanks to writers and editors? Or if you've received a special thanks as a writer/editor, share your story with us. We'd love to hear it.

Jessica Mosley, writer of this blog post. You're welcome. :)

Blog #300 - What We've Learned

Yay! This is our 300th blog post! I've been editor of this blog since the beginning, so I figured this was a good chance to go back and take a look we've learned in that time about how to write a good blog for business. Here's a few gems, some learned the hard way, some dropped in our lap for immediate blog beautification.

Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. Did I mention you need to post consistently? The first few years of this blog (it started in 2006) were spotty at best. We'd get it rolling then months would go by with nothing. Then we'd get it rolling again and let slack off again. Now, for the last few years, we've been pretty consistent - posting 3 posts a week, with our "Ad of the Week" feature coming out on Wednesday. Traffic has trended upward steadily during this time.

Of course, as I say this, we're coming off an incredibly busy few weeks here at Yaffe where we were working crazy hours. During these weeks, we only posted once. In blog world, it doesn't take long for a lack of consitency to hit. Before those two weeks, we were riding on an all-time high in terms of page views per day. The last 4 days, we dropped to less than half of that traffic. You have to set expectations up and then meet them. Any slacking will hurt you.

Focus Your Content.Another wrong thing we did at first was to be all over the place. We figured we had to have a blog and didn't really strategize how to use it. We wanted everyone at the agency to be involved and had people take turns, whether they were good writers or not. And we let them write on whatever. We had posts that were recipes, posts about family holidays, a post that was really just a bad riddle... you get the idea.

Now we focus on things our clients and potential clients would be interested in. The purpose of creating content is to be helpful and in the process show your expertise and build thought leadership. Now our posts are about marketing, advertising, branding, corporate culture, social media, mobile, digital... all things we do and have expertise in.

Have Good Writers Do The Writing. As I mentioned above, we used to have everyone write, sometimes without complete willingness. Now, we have a team in-house that are all good at writing in general, and at writing blogs specifically. Rather than making the rest of the staff pitch in, we often bring in guest bloggers who have a specific expertise. This improves both your content and what your audience can get out of reading the blog.

Once you start writing a blog on a consistent basis, it gets in your blood. I know from personal experience, if it's been a little too long since I wrote a post, I actually get a little on edge about it. It's not just knowing we need to have something out there; it's a need to actually write and make the connection that a blog creates. I look forward to the next 300, which should come much faster than the first 300. I hope you'll join us on the journey and add your thoughts along the way.

Are you a blogger or just a blog reader? What have you learned in your time spent with blogs? How has it impacted your life and how you do business?

Mike McClure, Editor, Yaffe Tidbits

4 Reasons Your Company Should Be On Empire Avenue

Running your company is serious business. Empire Avenue is the latest time-wasting game that's the hottest social media darling. So, why would you pay an employee real money to set up your company on Empire Avenue, where it can be sold for play money? Doesn't seem like a good use of someone's time, does it? Yet, I think there are good reasons you might want to consider it.

1. First of all, if you aren't familiar with Empire Avenue, it's part game, part social connecting, part social rating and part content aggregator. You set up your account and people or companies can "buy" stock in you. Your stock price is determined by how many invest in you and what you are doing on all your different social channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, your blog, etc). Your share price therefore becomes a Klout-like rating of your social worth, but unlike Klout, it's one you have some control over. A good primer on the subject is the "Empire Avenue: The Next Big Thing in Social Media" article on Smideo

1. Connect with Prospects and Potential Partners. Once you set up your company's account, you can buy shares of other companies and individuals you'd like to get on the radar of. Not only will they get a notice that you bought shares of them, but you can then send them "shout out" messages. Just don't be salesy in your shout outs. Like any social media, create a relationship first. Also, once someone buys your stock, your twitter stream will appear on their home page along with those of the other stocks they've bought.

2. Tell Your Brand Story. It's actually a good way to distribute real world info to your play world investors. One of the first stocks I bought was Ford. Shortly after I did, I got a message from them through my Empire account. It was a message from Ford's head of social media, Scott Monty, which started out, "Today, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) held an actual shareholder meeting. While we have yet to hold a (e)FORD Shareholder meeting for our Empire Avenue shareholders, we thought we might share what happened at the annual meeting in Wilmington, DE today." It went on to talk about some of the positive outcomes from the meeting and even had links to the proposals shareholders had voted on and another link to their sustainability report. I thought it was a brilliant way to engage their social shareholders in their larger message.

3. Create a Promotion. Empire lets you use shout outs and advertising through it's channels to promote your brand (you). If you're a company, you could use these to create incentives to buy your stock. You could even promote trial of your product by giving coupons for free samples to everyone who buys stock. Or you could create additional word of mouth by offering a promotional item or discount for any shout outs about your brand.

4. Show That You're Social Savvy. As a product, brand or website, you can show where you rank in the social strata by the price you're able to get for your stock. It acts as a sort of Klout score for your brand. In fact, just being on Empire Avenue now as an early adopter shows that you are a forward thinking brand that's aware of social trends.

I'm sure there are other reasons your company should carve out your own piece of Empire Avenue. Not the least of which, is that its just kind of a fun thing to do. Have you tried it yet? What other things have you have seen brands doing there? What other reasons do you see for a company to join in? Or for that matter, why should they stay away? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Mike McClure - For sale at Empire stock symbol mikekmcclure, ECD at The Yaffe Group (eStock symbol TYG)

How to Get a Job in Advertising Today

They came at me two at a time, then three and finally one lone bearded guy in a hat. Smiling young people striking up conversation with me as I strolled through the eating and drinking portion of The D Show recently. The first time, it seemed strange. By the end of the night, I could spot them coming. "You're an MSU ad student, aren't you?" Yep. Another one.

It was a brilliant move by some advertising professor at Michigan State. He packed up a bunch of senior ad students and took them all to The D Show in downtown Detroit. For those of you who don't know, The D Show is the annual local advertising creativity awards show. It used to be the CADDY show, once upon a time. Anyway, he told them it was a chance to see some good work and rub elbows with some of the people who might be hiring them soon. They all did a good job of just walking up and striking up a conversation. Inevitably it worked it's way around to, "what do you suggest we do to better our chances of getting and advertising job." In the course of my discussions with them, I came to some conclusions I hadn't really thought about before.

Use Social Media & Digital Channels. One of the hardest things as a young person looking for a job (or anyone really) is to get past the gatekeepers and talk to the person you actual want an interview with. But, just like brands who can use social media to let consumers get to know them before they're looking to buy, job seekers can get their prospective employers to know them before ever asking for an interview.

LinkedIn is a good source for finding out who works where. Once you've researched who are the people you should be talking to within the agency, see how many you can find on twitter. There is no permission needed to follow someone on twitter. unlike Facebook or LinkedIn. Once you're following them. Find comments they've made that you can say something intelligent about and comment back. Also, retweet some of their tweets. The trick is to do enough to get noticed and engage them and not become a stalker-like nuisance.

Also, you can comment on the agency blog or even personal blogs if you find them for the people you are seeking. Again the key is to have something to say and add to the conversations without being there all the time like some overeager cyber stalker. By spending some time and having some online conversations, you can eventually contact them looking for an interview - and they will know you rather than you just being another person on the slush pile. Better yet, once you've built a relationship ask if they will look at your resume or portfolio and give you some tips. Especially if you have a website or digital portfolio you can just sent them a link to.

Portfolios Aren't Just For Creatives Anymore. In talking to the students, I gave the creative types my usual spiel on how to put together their portfolio. But there were  a few students who were looking to get into the account planning/strategy side of the business. Creatives have always had the advantage of having a portfolio of work to show, while the strategy people just had to rely on their resume and interview skills. It occured to me that those who were looking to get in on the account side could absolutely put together a portfolio.

I told the strategists in the group to team up with a creative person. They could take a product or brand that they knew well and develop a strategy for them. They could then write up a whole strategy for what they should be doing, who they should be targeting, what key attributes they should feature, what media they should be using and so on. Then they could team up with a creative person and have them execute the strategy. This shows how you think strategically and also shows how you are able to work with creative people and make sure they execute the strategy - two important aspects of your future job. It's good for the creative part of the team as well - it gives them something to work on and shows how they can execute a strategy creatively.

It's been a few weeks now and only a couple of them have started following me on twitter and initiated conversations with me. None have commented on any of our blog posts. Maybe that will change after this post. Now if only students from my alma matter could start winning The D Show student awards instead of CCS hogging all the glory.

If you're searching for a job what has worked for you? If you're an old ad fart like me, what other advice would you have for our younger counterparts coming up through the ranks?

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Direct & Yaffe Social Media Guy (also @mikekmcclure on twitter)

Storytelling Trumped Learning at 140 Conference Detroit

I had the pleasure of attending the first ever 140 Conference Detroit a few weeks back and I was blown away by the stories I heard there. Each story by itself was amazing, but the way the conference is set up, you are hit by wave after wave of them. It's a whole day of 10 and 5-minute presentations, with a number of panel discussions peppered in. And the other nice thing about this conference was the breadth of subject matters and experiences that hit you.

I learned a lot, but it was the storytelling that sticks with me weeks later. We had stories on how the real-time web affects life in rural America and in urban Detroit, on how it affects news gathering and selling flowers. We heard panels on how social media changes the music industry, real estate, medical care, education, the church and even a panel of local high schoolers who talked about a book "The Feed" that is a cautionary tale for our times. We heard inspiring stories about how an orphan from a war-torn country reunited with family members after he was grown, thanks to the web and how humor writer, Annissa Mayhew (who was both inspiring and hilarious), was able to move on after a near paralyzing stroke and how the real-time web is helping Haiti in this time of crisis.

These people really tell a story! Some of the best of the best storytellers included Stephen Clark, anchor on Detroit's WXYZ and founder of the "backchannel" on twitter, Beverly Cornell, Henry Balanon and Yisrael Pinson aka Recovery Rabbi. Let's start with Steven Clark, man that cat can weave a tale. It was almost the same talk on the formation of the twitter backchannel that he gave at TedX Detroit. Yet, I found it riveting. If you get a chance to talk to him about it, I highly recommend it. Beverly Cornell told the story of how twitter helped her get her stolen laptop back - it was very funny and compelling. Henry Balanon told the story of their Chevy SXSW roadtrip. I knew this story too, but Henry is always so casual and funny on stage. He's someone else I could listen to any time. Rabbi Pinson mixed just the right amount of humor and poignant story to really keep the audience in rapt attention. He said, social media and recovery are a match made in heaven. The best method for recovering from an addiction is to connect with peers who've been through it before. Social media is one of the best ways for them to make those connections. In a day of great storytellers, these folks stood out to me.

Chris Brogan is one funny dude. Part of Jeff Pulver's premise for the 140 Conference is to bring in enough superstars to pull in the people and get them to listen to the every day folk who make up the bulk of the day. They don't get much bigger in the social media world than Chris Brogan. His speaking style was rapid fire funny lines one after another. Jen Wright, who was sitting next to me, leaned over and said, "he speaks like he tweets." And it was true, with such tweetable quotes as, "I love God, I hate his fans" when talking about the religious right. Or when talking about how the Invisible People project is getting the homeless online, "I'm reading more homeless people's blogs than tech people's blogs these days." He talked about how we in Detroit have all the tools and the people here to do what needs to be done "you don't need us flying monkeys to come in and fix things."

I can be in the movies! In the presentation on the film Lemonade Detroit, we learned that you can help micro-finance the movie by buying one frame of film for a dollar. This purchase will get you a producer credit for the film. It's a cool idea for a worthwhile project. I later saw my own hairy mug up on the big screen when John Hammond premiered the trailer for "Blog `n the D" - a documentary on local bloggers, of which I'm one. It looked pretty good if I say so myself, even though I sounded like an angry dwarf.

 Blog `n the D trailer

People I knew on stage, people I didn't know in the audience. As one of the guys in the social media panel on churches said, it's not about the building (or conference, in this case), it's about the people. I have never been to a conference where I knew so many of the people speaking on stage personally. It was a really neat experience to see and hear what people I know have to say in a different context. And they all did Detroit proud. It was also fun to meet new people in the crowd. I met a number of people I'd only conversed with online and that's always fun. There was a contingent of people sitting near me who had come in from St. Louis, we struck up a conversation and have now all connected online. At one point the woman in front of me retweeted one of my tweets and I sent a message back of thanks and turn around I'm behind you. We had a laugh about that.

This all goes to say that conferences like this are great both for what you hear the people on stage say and for the new people you meet at the event who are just other fans like yourself. I find both to be very valuable. I have pages and pages of stuff I learned at this event, but as you can see from this post, it was the amazing stories that stuck with me. From both the people on stage and the people I met in the audience.

Jeff Pulver says he loved Detroit and plans to bring it back next year. Guess I better start working on my stories for next year. Maybe I can see a conference from a different perspective - on stage.

Mike McClure, Storytelling Fan & Avid Listener

The Story on Storytelling - 3 Bloggers Who Do It Right

 

Like most of you reading this, I spend time every day reading advertising, branding and social media blogs. It's how we keep up, how we learn what's working, and sometimes what's not working. We as an industry spend a lot of time on our blogs in conversation about what people are saying, but rarely about how they're saying it. 

And for as often as I read people making the connection between good storytelling and good branding, I'm surprised that they do so only with their content and rarely with their form. Yes, these are blog posts and meant to be a somewhat free-form reaction to things in our industry. And God knows I heavily utilize that structural freedom. But on the other hand, when bloggers apply the very tools they tout for their clients to their own writing, the effect is powerful. 

Three industry bloggers stand out to me as great examples of this. They tell good stories about how to tell good stories. They show personality while talking about why it's important to show personality. 

Guided by the principal that what comes out of a writer is often inspired by what goes in, I asked each stand-out blogger to tell us what sort of storytelling most inspires them.

 

Shannon Paul

"I absolutely love reading Roger Ebert's movie reviews, and his blog. There are several dog-eared copies of his books lying around our house. My husband really got me into reading his reviews, and even though I don't always agree with his assessment, I always appreciate his point of view. The man can definitely turn a phrase, he has a wicked sense of humor and he shares so much of his experience in his reviews, I can't help but feel like I know him. Lucky for me he now has a very prolific blog and active Twitter account."

I find it fitting that one of Shannon's favorite inspirations offers his thoughts on an industry, yet his writing feels like its own kind of story in which he incorporates bits of himself in his shrewd analysis, because those are the very same reasons I enjoy reading her writing. Shannon's unique ability to give thorough and useful accounts of topics like ROI while breathing life into them with her own brand of wit is apparent even in the title of her site, the one and only Very Official Blog. 

Shannon Paul is the Social Media Manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. You can find her writing at her site and, my personal favorite, engage with her deft and thought-provoking debates on Twitter. 

 

Chris Reed

"There’s part of me that’s jealous of musicians. They have the luxury of people hearing their lyrics the way they were meant to be heard. Writers, no matter what kind, face the challenge of interpretation...of slow readers...of fast readers...of monotoned readers. Writers can’t italicize or bold every other word. Musicians and songwriters can. There’s a lesson in that.

It’s usually the simple things that kick my ass with their brilliance. It’s usually the simple things that make me wish I’d thought of them. The Avett Brothers, a new addition to my iTunes library, did that to me by sticking the word 'and' between those three little words: 'I And Love And You.' Seriously. Simple brilliance." 

Though he listed several fiction titles that have influenced his love of storytelling (both his heavily dog-eared copy of Hornby's High Fidelity and Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird reflect his inclination toward straightforward prose), it was his thoughts on lyrics that I see most prominently reflected in his dynamic professional writing.

I generally agree with Chris on most things, but as a self-confessed tone-deaf reader, even I can hear the cadence in just this short excerpt. I regret to inform him that the regular beats separated by repeated ellipsis, melodic repetition of "It's usually the simple things" followed up by short, quick, heavily-punctuated bursts of words create the rhythm he envies in musicians. 

Chris Reed is a Brand Catalyst and Writer for Talent Revolution. You can read (and tap your foot to) his humble musings on branding and copy at his TR Blog, his personal site, and in smaller, poignant increments on Twitter.

Seth Simonds

 "Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck was the only book I brought with me when I got rid of all my belongings that wouldn't fit into a backpack and gym bag. His simple, matter-of-fact telling of a story that relies more on interesting characters than complicated prose stands as a constant permission for me to just write." 

I love that Seth, in a mere two sentences, tells us something about himself, offers an apt analysis of a favorite author's writing style, and a mission statement regarding his time in this space—to just write. In short [very short], his form stays true to his message. His deft strokes and straightforward approach are what keep me coming back to his writing, seeking plain talk about often tough issues, and keep me leaving feeling as though someone's respected me enough to be honest. 

Seth Simonds is a Social Strategist at Mullen and Founding Editor of RealZest.com. Find him on Twitter or occasionally, and eloquently, at Alphanox.com.

I absolutely love great synergy, where the keystrokes follow the advice they give. If you know of any others who fit this category, please share. I can't get enough.

Jen Wright, Social Strategist who is currently making her way through the works of Thomas Hardy, as she is fascinated by writers who manage to find the pulse of social conventions with their pens.

Why Your Company Should Have a Blog - Now

Lately, we've been recommending blogs to a wide range of clients and potential clients. And in all kinds of businesses: B2B, retail chains, non-profits, restaurants, furniture. There's a different strategic reason for each one. Which is to say, if you haven't considered making a company blog part of your marketing mix, you probably should.

For one thing, blogs offer you a chance to show your thought leadership and give potential clients an insight into how you think. It's an opportunity to be helpful and share your knowledge with others, which is one of the fundamentals of social media. This is especially true in business to business companies, because you get a chance to show how your smart people can help other businesses with their ideas. If you are a consulting or service oriented company this may scare you, because ideas are really the product you sell. It shouldn't. When you help a company solve a problem they've been having through an idea in your blog, they will remember you fondly when they need deeper help. Or they may find that they can't pull it off on their own and will hire you to show them how to do it right.

Blogs are a great way to engage in conversations with both your current clients and potential clients. As outside people begin to comment your posts and your people comment back, conversations are started. This may lead to deeper dialogs through other channels. Or it may just become a way for people to feel a connection to your company and the people in it. Either way, you are now talking with potential clients you'd never have gotten to speak with and talking with current clients in different ways that may lead to deeper engagements.

Also, a blog is a great SEO vehicle. It gets your name showing up in search results. The search spiders love blogs, For one thing blogs are mostly text based with pictures and videos attached. Also, they have fresh content showing up on a regular basis. You won't get a ton of traffic right when you start your blog, but it will grow over time as more people find you and you have more content that will appear in "long tail" searches. This is one of the reasons you should start your blog now, so you can start building your content library. Eventually that will drive traffic to you through search. The Yaffe Group owns five different websites related to our business. This blog gets more traffic than the other four sites combined. By a lot. A good percentage of that traffic comes from search - people looking for something on Google, Yahoo, Bing and the rest. So, a lot of people who never would have come to our company related sites, discover our blog daily. You can put that to work for you, too.

People want to know what companies are all about these days. Are you operating green? Are you a good corporate citizen? How do you look at the world? A blog gives your company a human face. By having different people in your company contribute to a blog, readers start to think of your company as those real people, rather than as some cold, faceless entity. It humanizes the company and shares your corporate culture with others. So, if you have a fun company/product like a restaurant chain, you can do fun things with your blog to put that culture forward. If you're a serious consultant who helps with million dollar problems, you can put a very thoughtful, serious and intelligent face on your company through your blog.

Finally, in his article "Recruit a Virtual Sale Force With Your Blog" Mark Stevens talks about how your blog readers become virtual salespeople for your company by recommending your blog to others. Every day his marketing blog gets thousands of new readers. Most of those came there because someone else shared a link with them. He talks about how as these people become part of their virtual family, some of them eventually need or want services his company offers. He gets hundreds of people he didn't even know were reading his blog showing up at their site each year looking for services.

So, what are you waiting for. Figure out what blog strategy works best for you and start using one to help your business today. Need help figuring out that strategy? Well, you could be one of the people who read our blog and showed up asking us for that service. You know, just to prove Mark's point.

Mike McClure, Yaffe Blog Editor & Strategist

Here's One Way to Find a Social Media Marketing Expert.

There are a lot of self-proclaimed experts and gurus out there,claiming to be able to help you navigate the web 2.0 world. Social media's been around for awhile, but the concept of companies using social media as part of their marketing mix is one that's just now really starting to take off. Most companies, especially small to mid-sized ones, don't know how to use it and are looking for experts. But how can you tell if the expert you're talking to truly knows what he or she is talking about. Are they able to practice what they preach? Finding out who really knows their stuff and is capable of creating measurable ROI was the idea behind Blog Off II - a contest that pitted bloggers against each other for 12 days in December. created by Andrew Ballenthin and the Community Marketing Blog.

I had the pleasure of being on the panel of judges who formed an international"Dream Team" of social media and digital marketing practitioners for the contest. We had 28 contestants from the U.S., Canada, England, Italy, India and the Netherlands who wrote over 110 blog posts. This created over 27,700 page views and generated over 1,260 comments. Those are good, hard number, and pretty amazing for a 12 day period. The entrants were judged on these numbers and then we (the judges) looked at qualitative characteristics such as writing quality, how well they engaged in conversation with their audience and other similar issues.  The top 3 winners split $45,000 in prizes, including a new logo and branding package designed by The Yaffe Group.

In order to do well, Blog Off II contestants needed to use all their social marketing skills to drive traffic to their posts. They needed to write good content about things people wanted to know more about. They had to engage them to get them to come to the blog and then engage them further in an on-going conversation once they got there. In the end, the winners were those who had already created a strong enough social network that they could tap into it and drive traffic. They were also those who had the strongest personal brand, so people were interested in what they had to say and trusted them enough to engage with them. In return, each blogger's social network was expanded by the contest and blog readership. And their personal brands were enhanced by being a part of it. That's the kind of results you want for your company's brand. It's also the qualities you want in a social media expert/guru.

Unfortunately, not everyone has been able to be a part of something like this that proves they truly understand how to use social media and leverage their own personal brand for marketing purposes. However, you can look at who excelled in this contest and watch for the upcoming Blog Off III. You can also look at the dream team and the community marketing blog team. Each of us has our own twist to offer and, since we've all built communities of our own, can likely direct you to someone who's the perfect fit for your needs, even if we're not.

The most important thing you can do when looking for someone to guide your company through the new social marketing landscape is to take the same care you would if searching for a new marketing firm, PR company, HR resource, employee trainer or any other professional service. Because, social media has parts of all those functions rolled into one and you need to make sure the person or firm you hire doesn't just talk a good game, they play it well, too.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director/Social Media Director