Blogging Tag

20 Apr

Posted at 09:14h in Uncategorized by
By Beth Graddon- Hodgson Once you have a focal point for your blog and have decided whether you’re going to focus on writing your blogs in a topical or personal style (or combination of the two, it’s time to actually sit down and start blogging. If you think making those decisions was a challenge, then you’re in for what’s the hardest and most essential part of creating an effective business blog. After all, some of those elements are decisions you only need to think about once; choosing a specific blog topic has to be on your mind whenever you sit down to write on a weekly or daily basis. This is one topic that’s a bit harder for me to write about, because there are endless examples, so it’s hard to put a specific guide in place. What works for one company also won’t necessarily work for another even in the same industry either.  Since I can’t tell you WHAT you’ve got to write about, I will provide you the process I go through with my clients  determine which direction I should go with each of the posts.

06 Apr

Posted at 10:40h in Small Business, Social Media by
By Beth Graddon-Hodgson Once you’ve chosen a focal point for your blog – your vague subject area on what you’ll focus upon, the next step is to start making more specific decisions about the writing style. When writing each blog post you can make them personal or topical – or any combination of the two. In order to get a feel for what might work best for your blog, I’m going to provide you with some basic guidelines about what each of those categories mean. With this post, the focus will be upon personal business blogs. A second related article next week will discuss topical blog posts.

09 Mar

Posted at 11:21h in Public Relations, Social Media by
A decade ago I sat in meeting after meeting in Silicon Valley hearing about the new economy and how the 'old school' IT companies were dead. It's so funny to me now, listening to all the social media experts and Web 2.0 pundits say that 'traditional PR is dead.' I venture to say that lazy people hope by saying traditional PR is dead, maybe they can make it so. After all it's a whole lot easier to sit in your jammies and tweet and facebook the night away than it is to call Patty Neger at Good Morning America to find out if she likes the latest book you've sent her. Believe me, I would much rather be trading snarky barbs with folks like @CLE84 than getting rejected for yet another story idea by a crusty print reporter.

26 Feb

Posted at 13:59h in Public Relations, Small Business by
In honor of being incredibly lazy this week, here's one of my fave 2009 posts - the last Friday of every month I'll throw a repeat of one of the more popular posts, just in case you missed it! [stextbox id="alert" color="000000" bgcolor="17e8e8"] A product, service or book is probably the greatest thing in the world - to its creator. But when an editor or producers says "pass" it's the publicist who has to tell the client. Sometimes ZERO  media are interested. And for anyone who has written a book, started a business or provided a service, that can be a pretty personally hurtful message no matter how carefully it's couched. For me, it's the equivalent of having to tell clients "your baby is ugly" 95% of the time, without hurting their feelings. Nearly impossible.

16 Feb

Posted at 10:42h in Social Media by
Thank you to professional writer and blogger Beth Graddon-Hodgson for giving us the insider info on how pro bloggers work...and how to pay them. Check out her website or follow Beth on Twitter As many companies jump on the blogging bandwagon, they’re faced with one major dilemma as they wonder “what the heck do we pay these people?” The problem is that there are companies and independent writers who have set standards that go to two extremes – those who accept bottom dollar rates just to get the business, and those who gouge their clients for all that they’re worth. With this in mind, most companies have the wrong idea about reasonable payment.

03 Dec

Posted at 15:58h in Public Relations, Small Business by
There are so many books out there for business owners on how to do your own marketing and/or public relations. Frankly most of them say the same thing - know the reporter, don't be too salesy, etc. Here are my top five picks - not only are these books current, they go into real tactics that you can use right away. I think if you read these books, whether you're a  small business owner, author, entrepreneur.... you can  start promoting or upgrade what you're already doing and get some results fast.
  1. Obviously social media  is one of the best (and cost-effective) ways to promote your business, service, book, whatever.  The definitive manual (and New York Times bestseller) on the subject is Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Smith and Brogan describe not only HOW to use social media, but WHY you want to use it and most importantly, how to measure your success.  The book covers the basics of social media so a newbie can learn but also dives into the more sophisticated aspects of the medium

20 Nov

Posted at 11:38h in Small Business by
I'm straying way off course and off schedule in honor of the 7th anniversary of Wax Marketing - today! My biggest lesson? Dealing with the big GWF - the gut wrenching fear that comes with owning a small business. I don't think it's good marketing strategy, or business acumen, or networks that makes or breaks a small business. I think it's the ability to deal with fear. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, right?So the next time you wake up in the middle of the night worried about that big check you need to cover payroll - or  when half your customers decide your service is a "luxury" they can do without - try these and see if they work. Here's how I've learned to deal with GWF  over the past seven years. I hope you'll add your own fun tips and ways to get around it too!

19 Nov

Posted at 14:21h in Public Relations, Social Media by
Hopefully you haven't had a crisis that made you pull your hair out but chances are, if you stay in business it will come sooner or later. Communicating during crisis is a big topic - but content is scarce on this one so I'm going to write about it in at least a couple posts. For this one I'll define crisis in the PR 2.0 world, give you an example of a couple bad responses to crisis - and a few ideas for devising your own crisis plan. Would love to hear any stories about crisis you've got as well.

05 Nov

Posted at 14:18h in Public Relations, Social Media by
Flacks get a lot of, well, FLACK. Some of it deserved and some of it not. If you're a new product, new author, small business or otherwise lower profile brand it can take a long time to establish a media footprint, digital or otherwise. Getting placements right away isn't always the best measurement as things can take a long time. It's time to give new buyers of public relations services a checklist for separating the rock stars from the ones with rocks in their head. Please add your own thoughts but let's not rant. We've got the Bad Pitch Blog for that!