A recent post on Social Media Examiner goes into depth on what prevents a blog from succeeding.  I just started my first music marketing blog this summer. Check it out!

1.) Selfishness- The first trap I have fallen into as a blogger is that there is too much focus on me. HYPEorBOLE is meant to help independent artists find creative ways to get their band’s name out there, so naturally almost every article has talked about my own band. The truth is, we’re still local with a small draw most of the time, so the twenty or so people that have glanced at my blog were probably a little turned off. Posts should instead offer solutions to readers’ problems. To connect with a reader through a blog is to write about them and share common problems!

2.) Overselling- This point is pretty straightforward, and doesn’t just apply to blogs. Filling your page with gaudy ads with no relevance to the blog will send the readers back-clicking all the way back to Google. If there must be ads, keep them on the subtle side. Nothing should distract a reader from the actual text.  The closest my blog gets to advertising is providing a “Like” widget for the band’s Facebook page.

3.) No Outside Expertise- Credibility is one of the most important attributes to have when creating content for strangers. Bringing in an outside expert can prove to be extremely valuable, as it shows a blogger’s willingness to provide the best information as well as a display of his/her access to expertise. I plan on interviewing a member of a local band on the rise who can share how his Facebook page has grown to 3,000 fans in under a year.

4.) Useless Content- While it may seem like a no-brainer, posts should be valuable and offer as much exclusive information as possible. In my article about having a CD release show, it focuses on both the direct and indirect benefits of actually having a CD release show rather than just listing how to sell more CDs. Someone who believes that the CD is dead will not care about how to sell them; they will first need convincing that it’s still a worthwhile venture.

5.) Lack of Sharing Options- We’re halfway through 2011. People visiting your blog should not be copying the URL and pasting the link in an e-mail every time. Chances are, if someone is looking at your blog, they have a social networking account that goes beyond e-mail. Try using AddThis to embed Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Google +1 icon buttons to your posts. This is a win-win. The reader has an easier way of sharing the post with their network and your post appears even more credible when it is shared more. Most blog creation platforms provide the option to display sharing buttons (some with share counts). Take advantage of this as often as possible.

6.) Disengagement- If you’re lucky enough to receive comments on a blog post, answer them back promptly. The readers will love the recognition and feel glad that they chose to interact with your blog. Check the spam comments as well, because even spam filters mess up now and again and mark genuine user comments as spam. Go one step further and visit the commenter’s blog to leave input of your own. This will establish an online rapport that can bring the reader back regularly.

7.) No Reason to Return- The 80-20 rule of sales applies to your blog, too. Only 20% of readers are returning to read new posts. You have to literally remind readers to return and keep them updated on the latest relevant information. It can’t hurt to include new blog post links on your Twitter and Facebook statuses. Consistency is key. The biggest weakness of my blog right now is the fact I haven’t been posting on it regularly. Consistent information and weekly articles will show readers that the blog is important to you and that it is a constant source of new information. Do not become discouraged by low readership; continue to post!

I hope that these tips can help your blog receive more recognition in the future. At the end of the day, a great blog has useful content, engages readers, and brings return visits because of high quality. If you can pretend your blog is a brand new boutique and the internet is the Mall of America, focus on what is being sold in the boutique first and foremost. If these tips are followed, success in Web 2.0 is not far from reach.

I am a working mom. It’s 10:30AM. I just put my son down for his first nap of the day. It’s actually late for a morning nap…rather than the usual 7AM, he decided to sleep in until 8:30 this morning. His daily schedule is flexible like that—he’s in charge. And that’s okay. Because my job allows for that kind of flexibility.

When he naps, I work. I am part of the growing workforce of work-from-home moms, largely made possible by the new popularity of social media. At DC Interactive Group, for many clients we provide a virtual online marketing department. We consider ourselves part of our client’s team—but we happen to be experts at our focus area, and we happen to work off-site.

When I was 4 months pregnant, my husband and I gave our working plan a lot of thought. And from just a cost perspective, when we factored the cost of daycare, reducing my hours to part time and working from home was the perfect scenario. Fortunately, the boss was on board—he’s a family man himself, but he also gets it—because our focus is promoting your business in online circles, we can take care of that from anywhere.

And he’s not the only employer taking advantage of the unique skills moms have to offer the online world—check out MomForce.com , an entire site dedicated to placing moms in just this sort of position. The job placement site offers flexible jobs, some entirely telecommute, some with some hours at home, some with all hours on site, and many jobs in the social media arena, including jobs categorized as blogging and social media jobs. It also gives moms the chance to post their resumes and skills for employers to review.

When I was a kid and people asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?", I never would have answered, "A blogger." (Considering the world wide web wasn’t quite invented until I was around 10, that would have been an odd answer…stranger than my usual answer, "A turtle.") But now, blogging can be a career. In fact, Alecia Keys just announced a job listing she posted on Monster for a "Head Blogger" , and she teamed up with Monster, who will use their 6Sense search technology to find the right candidate.

Blogging for clients is a big part of what I do. A lot of times I enjoy myself so much that I think, I couldn’t possibly be getting a paycheck for this. And it isn’t that bad of a deal for employers, either. When I sit down to work, I work. I hate to admit it, but the hours I record are among the most productive work hours of my life. When Wally Ben is napping, I am approaching each task with a focus unmatched in my days of sitting at the same desk from 9-5.

So hooray to the social media world for opening up a new work alternative for moms. And hooray to the employers out there who see how that alternative can work for both moms and their businesses. It will be interesting to see how social media continues to change the way we work. It’s exciting to be a part of a new, developing arena that plays such a big part in people’s lives.

Now I’m off to change another diap, and while I’m at it, I’ll ask Wally Ben what he wants to be when he grows up. Hopefully he’ll come up with something a little less reptile than his mom’s childhood dream.

You have to love the internet.  It’s so free and open, and yet at the same time it can be rather dark and mysterious.  We see blogs, posts, comments and reviews everywhere, yet nobody really knows the writer’s true intent, or whether he or she has any hidden agenda.

Companies feel this heat, and are struggling to figure out how to police, or at least how to monitor, their own staff’s online contributions.  So I’ve assembled here a few links to the guidelines and policies that were put out by some of the bigger names in the corporate world.  While these guides may not serve all your needs, you should be able to pull some valuable information from each as you craft your own policy.

If you know of any I’m missing, please share here.  Or even better, if you have a link or document that directly relates to a certain industry, please pass that along too.  I’m sure the readers will appreciate getting some direction.

Some of these have links within the sites, so look closely.  And enjoy!

Mayo Clinic

IBM

General Motors

DELL

Intel

DePaul University

U.S. Airforce (note: this is a pdf)

According to new research from Enid Burns at The ClickZ Network, blogs can have more impact on purchase decisions than social networks. Blogs create a conversation and trusted resource that influences purchase decision.

The study, “Harnessing the Power of Blogs,” sponsored research by BuzzLogic and conducted by JupiterResearch, a Forrester Research company, looks at the evolving influence from the reader’s perspective. “What we wanted to do was look at the reader’s side of the coin, look at reader patterns and how people are reading blogs…and drill down into the content impacting other media platforms,” said Valerie Combs, VP of corporate communications at BuzzLogic.

Readership of blogs is on the rise. JupiterResearch noted a 300 percent growth in monthly blog readership in the past four years. Readers look to links and multiple blog sources to extend the conversation: 49 percent of blog readers, defined as someone who reads at least one blog a month, and 71 percent of frequent readers all read more than one blog per session. Multiple blog sources offer more opportunities for consumers to see blog ads. A quarter of readers say they trust ads on a blog, compared to 19 percent who trust ads on social networking sites.

Advertisements on blogs are an opportunity for marketers to reach consumers. The findings said 40 percent of people reading blogs have taken action as a result of viewing an ad on a blog; and 50 percent of frequent blog readers say they have taken action. Of those actions: 17 percent have read product reviews online; 16 percent have sought out more information on a product or service; and 16 percent have visited a manufacturer or retailer Web site.

“More and more publishers are become extremely savvy understanding the game and becoming better at monetizing, which is great for the advertiser as well,” said Combs.

The survey also finds consumers are influenced by blogs at the moment of purchase decision. The channel plays a greater role than social networks, likely because bloggers establish themselves as an authority on a topic, particularly in niche areas, and create a relationship with the consumer.

“One of the things that’s so great about them is the personal, specific information,” said Combs. “Thorough, useful, honest creation, create a level of trust with the reader.”

We at Demi & Cooper just love blogs for our clients (heck, you’re reading our own blog now!). In healthcare, websites simply cannot be written for discussion purposes — they are reference tools designed to get the viewer the information he or she seeks quickly and easily, such as where are you located, how do I find a doctor, what services do you offer, etc. In homebuilding, websites show what the builder offers, where it’s at, and what it cost, plus a whole bunch of other biased info.

But blogs can go deeper into each subject, explaining medical procedures (even using video), new facilities and procedures, etc. in health care. In home building, testimonials go in blogs, as do local events, new hires, new techniques in building, etc.

But the most valuable thing you can do with a blog is tag it (digg, delicious, etc.) and link it so that the topic of the blog will come up in searches. We even Twitter our clients’ blogs and feed it to Facebook, getting the social community behind our work.

So just blog it. It won’t hurt and the results will be very impressive.

By now, we’ve all heard about the death of newspapers as a marketing medium (although I strongly disagree with the term “death” since I believe print will play a decent role for advertisers for at least five more years and then will play more of a specific role reaching certain demographics) and the power of the internet to cost-effectively reach customers. While there certainly has been a large shift in ad dollars to the web (we’ve seen excellent results from banner ads, etc.), we must recognize that web marketing by itself poses the same problems as utilizing any other medium exclusively. The point here is to mix the media — but make them work together.

If you want proof that TV can generate response, take a look at our effort for 1555 South Wabash in Chicago (1555 South Wabash Chicago ). While we didn’t produce the site itself (one look and you’ll see why I wrote that), we did insert the TV spot we produced. You see, print was ineffective, especially when the cost was considered. Web banners helped, but unless the banners were geotargeted, we saw a lot of waste in impressions and clicks. So for this community in the south loop area, we produced and ran a tv spot on cable TV in the areas surrounding the community. That spot ended with a special domain name used to track the results (you could only know about the web address if you saw the TV spot). This was the step approach: see TV spot. Go online to website. Schedule appointment. Receive confirmation. Visit sales office.

We budgeted a modest amount that included everything — production, media and the website, and have just ended the flight. Despite the short run, this was more effective than anything else done for the community since the Grand Opening.

Key to this approach was the web site which is really a landing page ( http://www.1555wabashchicago.com/ ). While it is all trackable, the most important element was the appointment scheduler. We knew that anyone looking at the TV spot who wanted information would visit our website. But we didn’t just want them to visit — we wanted them to come in. That’s where the appointment scheduler comes in. But we also wanted their name and info for our eblasts, just so we could stay in touch.

You see, the easier we can make it for people to fulfill our goal (in this case, schedule an appointment), the more likely it is that we’ll get people to work with us. The site was intentionally sparse — no floorplans, no area amenities, etc. since the key points were covered in the TV spot. But what happened? The first days the site was live and the TV spots ran, two appointments were made. What’s even more impressive was that the domain recorded more traffic in the first two weeks than the main website itself had in the three months before the spot ran. All for about half the cost.

So if you’re looking to focus exclusively on internet marketing, beware. You’ll be missing a lot of your market that simply won’t catch your online messages.

Think blogging is only for young, geeky males? Think again. A recent release of a new social media benchmark study of more than 6,000 women by BlogHer, in conjunction with Compass Partners, shows that 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogsophere every week, with 15.1 million publishing and 21.1 million reading and commenting. Granted, this study was done by a female blogging site, so the data is skewed. But it’s still valuable.

68% of this BlogHer community is concentrated in the 25 to 41 age group (the GenXr’s), compared to 42% for the general blogging population. Together, the Millienials and the Matures account for only about 10% of this community. Two thirds have completed college, and 46% earn over $75,000 compared to only 25% of the general community.

The blogging rates are highest among Millennials and GenX “digital natives,” says the report, and Online media participation rates decline with increasing age.

Additional highlights from the study:

Women are so passionate about blogging, says the report, that large percentages said they would give something up to keep the blogs they read and/or write:

• 55% would give up alcohol
• 50% would give up their PDAs
• 42% would give up their i-Pod
• 43% would give up reading the newspaper or magazines
• only 20% would give up chocolate

Time shift from traditional media is accelerating in the general Internet population:

• 24% of women surveyed watch less television because of blogging
• 25% read fewer magazines because they are blogging
• 22% read fewer newspapers because they’re blogging

In addition:

• More than half of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information
• Half of women surveyed say blogs influence their purchase decisions

So as marketers, what do we do with this info? Well, for one, we must keep up with posts to all sites related to our products and services. Women are reading — and writing — so why not? Second, we must engage them in dialog and lead them to sites where they will allow us to communicate with them. Our landing pages need more than a “contact us” button, but rather a “keep me informed” which allows the viewer to register to receive important information.

I gave some serious thought to this question over the past year, understanding clearly that blogging was a growing communication tool. After all, we create, write and manage blogs for our clients, so why wouldn’t I practice what we preach (to be fair, Jim Tome from my office has been an active blogger for a while now)? I wasn’t concerned about coming up with enough content. Those who know me understand that I’m not short on words. My fear was the time commitment necessary to make my blog a valuable resource for marketers who take the time to read it.

You see, I came across many blogs that got off to a fast start, but failed to keep the author’s own attention to the point that the most recent entry was months ago. Not only does that blogger look bad, but the company itself looks bad. That hit to my firm’s reputation is not something I was at all interested in feeling.

Obviously I’ve decided to blog. And I can assure you that I’ll keep up with it.

In addition to being enjoyable for anyone who likes to write, blogging lets our current clients know what we’re thinking about before we even present it to them. It helps them understand why we recommend what we recommend, and what leads us to change course in things like web stat software, TV spot doughnuts, print media, etc.

For potential clients, blogging helps them know who we are and what we know so that they might consider including us in a discussion about their marketing needs. Blogs build name recognition, and enhance our brand. It allows potential clients who are searching similar subjects on the net to “find” us (due to some complex tagging work on our part). But most important, blogs give potential clients an anonymous way to stay familiar with an agency that they might want to talk with in the future.

So read away ’til your hearts content. Comment where ever and whenever you think necessary. Dialog is good here. In fact, it’s really the point. If you’ve experienced something different or similar, post your comments. It won’t hurt. You won’t get a call from us. And it will be greatly appreciated.