Google generally seems to like online content (e.g., blog posts, articles) in the neighborhood of 400-600 words. I’ve heard as low as 200 words. That doesn’t mean you should stop writing if you happen to be a marathoner rather than a sprinter. However, you might want to split long posts into shorter, linked posts. Or not.
RSS: Subscribing to Feeds
Once you get your feed reader set up, you can start subscribing to feeds. The video below shows you how to subscribe to feeds in Google Reader. The key points in this video are: Use important keywords to find relevant feeds. Subscribe to as many feeds as you want, because you’ll delete some feeds later. [...]
Marketing Lessons from the Photography Shoot
Just about anything you are passionate about can teach you something about business and marketing. So much of business involves trial and error. Locale and audience have a critical influence on how you market and run your business, and ultimately, on your success. As a lifelong photography hobbyist, I’ve picked up a few lessons that I believe apply especially well to marketing.
RSS: Google Reader Introduction
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a way to publish and subscribe to blogs and other forms of information. It works very much like those stock ticker machines you see in old movies—a steady stream of blog posts, Twitter tweets, and notifications from a variety of online sources.
Twitter: No Followers? No Problem!
Last week I attended a great meetup in Santa Cruz, at which Karen Kefauver, a local social media maven and journalist, presented a beginner’s overview of Twitter to about 25 eager local businesspeople. If you assume that everybody is already way ahead of you in this social media thing, fuggedaboutit. Like you, a lot of folks are so busy running their businesses, they haven’t had time to delve into the details of social media and Twitter.
Marketing Plans: Start with Your Numbers
A marketing plan can be as simple as a list of to-do items on a legal pad. We’ve all made those and seen plenty more. Our early to-do lists typically contain items that sound something like Steve Martin bits: “First, get a million dollars.” Yeah, you know what we’re talking about. Those non-committal, broad-stroke, out-there goals over which you have absolutely no control. That’s what usually ends up on the yellow legal pad.
Social Media Can Kill
If you don’t think you have time to engage with the community online, think again. Like most things, social media can be good or bad, depending on how it’s used. But there’s no arguing that social media has become an essential tool for consumers to share, compare, and decide. Your company may not get the same level of scrutiny as the hotels in this TripAdvisor list of Dirty Hotels, but the list is a great wake-up call to all businesses. Get proactive about joining the conversation about your brand or prepare to be sliced and diced.
Inbound Marketing Assessment
The inbound marketing assessment is a comprehensive review of your current marketing program, your website, outbound and inbound marketing tools, and your in-house or contract talent. By talent, we mean your employees, friends, freelancers, or anybody who can help you create and promote content.
What Is Inbound Marketing?
It seems that everybody is talking about inbound marketing these days. You might be wondering, “How is this different from what I’m doing now?” The answer is, it depends.
