Marketing for a Cause.

Over the past few years, Linkedin has added some wonderful, free features that can help bloggers maximize their online efforts.   Below are some of the top activities you can do to not only increase blog awareness, but generate traffic and, ultimately, engagement levels:

1. Join Groups – Your free Linkedin account will limit you to 50 groups, and my advice is to take advantage of all of them.  Join groups in your core market that cover topics similar to those you blog about.   You can join or leave groups risk-free at any time.

*Tip: Try to join groups with at least 500 members, but not more than 5,000.  If the group is too small, you’re wasting valuable group allowance and will not be reaching as many people as you could.   However if the group is too large, you’re running the risk your message will be diluted among thousands of other posts.   I like to aim for a more tight-knit group in the 1,000 member range.  Remember, you have 50, so 1,000 members in each group equates to an audience of 50,000 people.

2.  Make Friends – Start connecting with your fellow groupies.   Linkedin is like a mini-rolodex, and the more people you connect with, the larger your blogging network and distribution list will become.

* Tip: At any time, you can export your Linkedin connections to Excel and import to your desired e-mail program to alert them of new blog posts.

3. Share Your Content – Share relevant, meaningful content that links back to your blog.  Post relevant discussions in groups and comment on other posts.  Short on time?  Try using RSS. In many situations you can contact the group owner and set up your Blog feed to auto post content within the News section of your group.

*Tip: Linkedin has an easy-to-use content sharing feature that makes  it extremely easy to post a link to multiple groups at the same time.  Once you’ve posted a new discussion, click the down arrow and select “Share.”

4. Have Fun (and don’t spam!) – Linkedin is a free and easy way to promote your blog posts while building your own professional network.  You can easily share as much blog content that you feel your group will be interested in, but try not to abuse the platform by overposting or spamming. 

*Tip: My advice to those sharing on Linkedin is to ‘keep it real’ and keep it relevant. 

Good luck!

For most people, the goal of blogging is to engage others with your content, whether it be your views, news or experience. The successful blogger will not only succeed at articulating this content, but will generate activity on their posts in the form of clicks or comments. While it can be rewarding to know that people are drawn to and are engaging with your content, the feedback you receive may not always be pleasant.

Below are the most common types of negative blog comments:

Stabs – Comments that are obvious attacks on your credibility.

Spam – Inappropriate link dropping, profanity or swears.

Corrections – Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or corrections to facts or figures.

When should I delete a blog comment?   

The decision to delete or address an unpleasant comment is the right of the blog author and he or she alone. Personally, I advise not to delete any comment unless it is spam, and most social media and blogging “gurus” would offer the same advice.  Still, I can understand how this may be difficult for new bloggers. I remember receiving my first “content stab” and it was a tough choice. I had written an opinion post advocating why we should find passion in our work. It was the essence of why I chose to start writing and ultimately formed the basis of my personal blog. When I received a negative comment on it, my first thought was “Where do I delete this?”  To me, the comment was a stain that needed to be cleaned. But then I started to think, shouldn’t I be happy someone is reading my post? What will they think if I remove this? Will they tell others? After giving it some thought, I decided to keep and address the comment. After all, transparency and honesty are the keys to building trust in relationships, and isn’t that a primary goal of online networking?   

How do I address a negative blog comment?

If you’ve chosen to address the problem rather than delete it- great. My advice to others faced with a negative comment is to determine where the feedback is coming from. Is the commenter a competitor, disgruntled colleague or someone who is trying to discredit your post? Could it be a spammer, a newbie or someone not versed in social media etiquette?  Or perhaps it’s another subject matter expert who is just trying to help you correct a mistake? Understanding who this person is can help you determine why they may have chosen to leave the comment and help frame your response.

At a minimum, try to do the following:

1)      Review your post – Try to see where the commenter is coming from. Read your post from their perspective and see if the comment makes sense.

2)      Check your facts – Did you have sources for your facts or figures? Did you remember to give credit where credit is due?

3)      Check your tone – Does the post sound helpful or bossy? Oftentimes a critical or negative tone will invite similarly-toned feedback.

If you can come to an understanding where the commenter may be coming from- great. Let him or her know that you understand. It is important to appear diplomatic rather than argumentative. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and there’s no harm in understanding the commenter’s perspective even if you don’t necessarily agree with it.

If the commenter was correcting you, thank them for catching it and taking the time to make a contribution to improve the post. Most of our every-day written accomplishments were created from collaboration and with the help of others.

If the commenter was challenging your facts or figures, cite your sources. Let them know where you’re getting your information and cover your bases.

The most important take away from receiving a negative comment on your blog is to not take it personally. Be thankful that others are taking the time not only to read but to interact with your content. There are many blog posts that only have crickets, so if you’re receiving comments (good or bad) you’re obviously doing something right.

As a marketing manager, my primary responsibility is to build marketing campaigns that make people want to use our products.  To do this I need to have solid data to work from, such as contact information, needs, and levels of interest about our prospects and clients. For this reason, my marketing database (or CRM in this case) is as valuable to me as any campaign I can dream of, as the strength of my campaign is only as good as the quality of data used to design it.

Locating and addressing the root cause of data quality issues is paramount in conducting efficient business operations in any organizational department.  Here’s a quick framework of how I do it:

1) Define the problem. Without trying to solve it, I make a statement as to what the problem is. What is wrong with what and include the frequency and isolation of occurrence if possible.

2) Gather facts. Again, without trying to solve the problem, I collect as much data ABOUT the problem as I can, asking other team members for input and looking for patterns as I go.

3) Compare and relate. Do any of the facts I’ve gathered relate exclusively to the problem I’ve described? If yes, list them.

4) Determine probable causes. Use deductive reasoning to weed out possibilities and identify your probable root causes, keeping in mind you’ll likely have more than one.

5) Test and check. Test each probable cause and check results to see which causes the problem to occur.

Root Cause Analysis in Practice

Here’s the theory in practice.  Imagine I need to build a contact information report for my sales team that is based on geographic territories. I set up the report and hit run, but the report only shows 10% of records with a state field.

1) Problem: Contact information report is missing state field on 90% of records.

2) Facts: There are no known performance issues with the database. The contract information report is built correctly (pulling the desired data fields with the desired filters). State fields were imported recently and this is the first time I’ve ran a report using State as a field.

3) Exclusive Facts: The contract information report is built correctly (pulling the desired data fields with the desired filters). State fields were imported recently and this is the first time I’ve ran a report using State as a field.

4) Probable cause: State fields were not imported correctly.

5) Test: Create a file to import with test data where state should be. Import the file and check results. Still not imported correctly? This is your likely root cause.

For more assistance with locating, and more importantly, addressing data quality issues, MIKE2.0 offers an open source solution to help address and correct them. Check it out when you have a moment.

I’m working on a project that involves using various marketing metrics as a baseline to structure and fund future team projects.  I’ve gathered my baseline marketing data from Google Analytics, determined my target percentiles, factored engagement metrics, and structured an incentive plan based on time and resources that I’m certain will work for both the client and project team.  I feel confident this is a sound and measurable methodology to base our project and incentive goals on.  But is it?

This same scenario happens all too often in project planning.  We over-think, over-quantify, and over-organize our plan and forget to factor in the most important component: flexibility. Think about it: if any team member received a project plan where success was based solely on mathematical measurements such as “hits received per day” or “comments generated per week” we’d be focusing only on the numbers and not on the larger picture. Where does creativity get calculated? Or innovation? What if half-way through the project, a team member finds a better metric, but because it’s not included in the initial project plan, chooses not to measure it? Likewise, if the project plan is so specific that it holds only certain people accountable for certain goals, how likely is it that our team members will be willing to work together versus individually?  Are we eliminating the opportunity to reap the benefits of collaboration and brainstorming?  Creating silos in an organization operating in an industry that has just accomplished knocking them down?

As an analytical person by nature, I love data.  I love numbers.  They help me gauge most of my successes in work and home life. But the more experienced I become in the workplace, I’m realizing they are not the “golden ticket” to measuring all results, especially when teams are involved. It can’t just be about hitting predetermined goals because chances are you’ve forgot a variable or your baseline has changed.  Also and more importantly, despite the fact that we live in an increasingly connected and networked world, people will work themselves back into a cubicle if you create a plan that allows them to.  Factoring in time for teamwork, flexibility, creativity and collaboration may impact your timeframe, but it also will impact a team’s ability to create innovative products and services.  And at the end of the day, those are the ones that sell.

Congratulations!  You finally decided to start your blog.  If you’re a newbie like I was, chances are you wrote a few posts, added some eye-catching graphics and in return you’ve gotten… crickets.  Maybe a few likes, a few tweets, but no comments.  You look at other blogs that appear similar to yours and notice they all have plenty of comments.

So what’s the problem?

As a content moderator for a well-known blog community, I’ve seen first-hand what type of posts generate the most comments.  These “power posts,” if you will, typically do more than one of the following:

• Pose a question
• Cover a hot or controversial topic
• Contain share buttons
• Are syndicated on other websites

For any new blogger struggling to generate comments, I always give the following advice:

1)      Take a look at your content. Are you trying to start a conversation, or just talking at people?  Are you asking questions or inviting feedback?  Many people who are experienced in their field have a tendency to “give away the kitchen” sink with their blog posts. If your goal is to generate comments, give readers an opportunity to finish the story. Invite participation and contribution from others.

2)      Take a look at your topic. Is it fresh or news-worthy, or boring and dated?  Hopefully this won’t come as a surprise, but people want to read something new and relevant to their niche, rather than something that’s already been covered or off-topic.

3)      Share it. Tweet it, post it on Facebook, change the title and repost it again. Cross-post it among relevant groups on Linkedin. Email it to colleagues, friends, or anyone in your network who may be interested.  Much research has been done to show that sharing content during certain times of the day or week can have an impact on how well people engage with it.

4)      Syndicate it. Reach beyond your immediate network. Create an account with a niche-specific blog aggregator, such as The Energy Collective or Carbon Capture Journal.  The more mileage your post can get across the social web, the more comments it’s likely to generate.

Taking the time to optimize and market your content can pay off in increased views, comments and overall engagement.

For our more seasoned bloggers, am I missing anything?

It’s all bells and whistles until you get it home, right?  If you’ve ever had an experience like mine, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Last year, one of my small business clients wanted to switch their CRM.  They were currently overpaying with their current provider, and wanted to switch to another at a lower cost.  After doing a bit of research, there were 2 clear alternatives. While the first alternative was the cheapest, the second alternative had the bells.  They had the fancy demo, the slick marketing materials and the fast support.  However, after testing them both out, I realized that while Alt#1 was the less jazzy version, it actually had everything we needed.  It was a clean slate and easy to use.  Alt#2 on the other hand, was littered with bugs, error messages and a clunky interface.   Later reporting to the client, I noted my experience with the trials and gave my recommendation for Alt#1.  Naturally, the client wanted to see a product demo before deciding, and unfortunately once that happened, all bets were off.  Alt#2 it was.  They had the look, the power and the support the client wanted.  After one last unsuccessful push back, I folded.  Dropped my guns.  I was an agreeable person… I loved a challenge…I’d make it work.

I’ve spent the last year of my life regretting the decision to “drop my guns.”  Since we implemented Alt#2, I’ve dealt with more support headaches, bugs, and data quality issues than we ever had with our previous CRM.  The flashy demo we saw was a mere illusion, a joke in contrast to what we actually given to work with.  Having implemented CRMs in the past, I should have known better.

As a marketer by education and trade, I know how to spot good marketing when I see it.  Yet after seeing how much money is paid to CRM and Demand Solution providers promising things they can’t deliver,  I often wish I went to school for programming instead.