Chris Garrett on New Media

Do you want to grow your blog traffic and audience? If so I have a deal for you …

You might have seen I have been planning a webinar in aid of my favorite charity. Details here and more here. In a nutshell, the idea was to put on a webinar stuffed with valuable information, and in return you would donate money to the charity. A win-win.

When I asked the topics you would be interested in, the overwhelming top result was “Growing Traffic and Audience” (see results here), so that is what the webinar will be about

• Attraction – Attracting visitors
• Retention – Keeping more of those visitors long term
• Conversion – Converting more visitors into subscribers

Sound good?

When I asked for your timezone the results were as follows:

Which Timezone?

So I have selected Thursday, March 26, 2009 16:00 UTC, which translates as:

• London GMT/UTC at 4:00:00 PM
• New York EDT/UTC-4 12:00:00 Noon
• Chicago CDT/UTC-5 11:00:00 AM
• Los Angeles PDT/UTC-7 9:00:00 AM

BUT there will be a recording, and PDF downloads after the event should you not be able to make it live.

If you want to join us for the webinar then your next step is to donate (how much is up to you) via credit card or PayPal.

An email will be sent to you confirming your donation and will contain a link to sign up for the webinar details. If you have already donated, just get in contact with me and I will sort you out.

Know you will be contributing towards a great charity (more details of the charity are on the donation page) and helping yourself gain more traffic, subscribers and long term fans

Donate now and reserve your place in the webinar!

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I love to get feedback in everything I do and I do get a lot of feedback. People tell me when my spelling is off, my grammar is wrong, if my pictures are bad, when my layout breaks in their browser, or if for some bizarre reason they disagree with me!

Sometimes people are even kind enough to be polite and offer suggestions for how to fix things, rather than just tell me all the bad things I am and where I can shove my blog.

Fear of feedback is just one of many reasons why we can all aim for perfection to the point where we don’t get anything meaningful done. In fact the majority of people are kind and open to ideas, and are willing to overlook issues with presentation if the content resonates with them.

With this in mind I present to you my first video about how imperfection should not hold you back and in fact can be a good thing.

Well, I say first, in fact it was the culmination of much swearing and throwing things, hence the worried look on my dogs face.

As always, feedback in the comments is very welcome

If you recall I had an idea to do a webinar in aid of one of my favorite charities. To gauge interest I did a survey asking what you would want the survey to be about. Here are all the results.

Any interest?

First up I asked if it was worth organizing. It seems most people are interested, depending on the topic.

With that in mind there were tons of topics suggested, below I have listed the most popular. Please vote for the topic you would most like to attend. If you are reading this in your feed reader or email you will need to click through to vote.

Which of These Topics Would You Attend a Webinar On?

I have to thank Rob Anderson from Accuconference who has been a great help in allowing me to use their service for this, and Cindy King and Denise Wakeman who have offered tips on how to organize it.

About the Charity

What is all this about? Well, I am trying to raise £10,000 for the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.

While I have been resisting saying too much about why I chose this particular charity, I have been told it is unfair of me to ask for money without giving at least a little background, so here it is.

You might or might not have noticed I went quiet for a while here and on Twitter. That is because my daughter went in to hospital for heart surgery. She had been on a waiting list since early last year and when the call came we had to drop everything. While we were there we experienced first hand what this charity does for patients and families.

My daughters operation looks to have been a great success, and for that we are grateful. That said there are many more kids going through this right now or will be coming through in the future.

While the doctors and nurses are brilliant and fully funded (it doesn’t matter if you have private health, it is the same team, same facilities), anything beyond the absolute basics comes from donations. As you can imagine it is a traumatic time for all concerned so anything that can be done to ease things is well worth supporting, and many families need ongoing support.

So there you have it, a bit of background. Of course I am going to try to help them in other ways, but this webinar idea seems to be a way to help the charity by getting some international donations and also pass on some good, valuable blogging and social media material at the same time

Over to You

Please take a moment to select the topic you would most like to attend or have a recording of – please click through and vote now

Business Blogging is fast becoming a vital part of any online strategy. The old days of “blogging puritanism” where bloggers were not supposed to make money have given way to individuals, companies and non-profits all hoping to use blogs and social media to grow and engage their audience.

I just got back from Social Media Congres in the Netherlands where I presented on this subject, and I think the subject is so valuable it needed to be shared with you, your friends and colleagues. So hit up the slides on slideshare or download as a PDF.

Business Blogging Slides at Slideshare

• Download Business Blogging Slides as PDF

Of course, as always, if you have questions or thoughts feel free to share in the comments.

I have set myself a goal of raising £10,000 for a children’s heart surgery charity. So far through asking on Twitter there has been raised around £700, so clearly I need to put in some extra effort if I am going to achieve this goal

Through discussions with friends on the Authority Blogger Forum and Twitter we had the idea to hold a webinar or teleseminar, with a small ticket price of, say £1/$1.50 or so, and all the proceeds going to the charity.

After sounding out a few folks on Twitter to see if there would be any interest, I contacted Rob Anderson from Accuconference who generously gave me the go ahead.

So now it is over to you.

Would you be interested, and if so, what would you most want me to do a webinar about?

Survey closed, thanks! – Click Here to See Results

The online marketing world moves in waves, with the majority of businesses following a trend not because it is fashionable but out of commercial necessity.

• Going online, just to be online.
• SEO was king for many years.
• Then it was Adwords.
• Blogging came next.
• Now it is Social Media that is gaining all the attention.

In the past competitiveness and innovation played the largest part, but I have no doubt worries about the global economy are driving the most recent moves.

Although Social Media has been growing steadily for a few years, it seems now most businesses are looking towards these tools and services to find a good ROI alternative to their offline marketing, without the heavy prices that Adwords require in many niches.

Is Social Media the solution that you are looking for?

Why Social Media?

There are many advantages to social media over and above just “Traffic”:

• Modern version of traditional PR.
• Speed up your reaction times.
• Super-efficient word of mouth marketing.
• World wide focus group.
• Instant answers to business or technical questions.
• Brand awareness.
• Be on top of market news and moves.
• Grow your network.

There are also valuable indirect benefits. Attention creates the opportunity for links and traffic, which drives search rankings, which in turn will attract people who want what you offer. Buzz does not need to be the end you strive for, but can also be a means to an end.

But there are also pitfalls:

• Social Media can spread bad news too.
• Pitch and promote approach will meet with resistance. Traffic to direct offers seldom convert well, you need to find a new way to bring attention to your products and services.
• The chit-chat aspect can be addictive. Use Twitter best practices.
• This stuff takes time and experimentation.

What to Do?

We are still at the beginning with these tools, there are no rules. The best social media strategies for each type of organization or individual are still being developed. There are though guidelines that you can use to make sure you get the most out of all this social media stuff:

1. Have a purpose, direct your efforts. Unguided meandering will just cause you to get bogged down.
2. Give before expecting anything in return. The most generous, genuine and valuable are those who’s ideas spread best.
3. Monitor your reputation. Use tools like TweetDeck, Google Alerts and Twitter Searches to see who is talking about your brand keywords and why. Respond appropriately.
4. Measure your ROI and do more of what works.
5. Experiment. Keep learning from case studies and good examples.

As always, I recommend you link all your social media activity back to your blog or website. Bring people back home, and give them good reasons to stick around. Build up your own base of loyal and egaged advocates.

Whatever you do, do not abandon what has been working for you and is still providing returns. Find ways to integrate the new stuff rather than throw out good tactics just because the new stuff is, well, new.

• Create valuable content and optimize for search engines.
• Engage your subscribers and customers.
• Grow your links and referrals.
• Build your lists.

Survey

Mike Stelzner is running a Social Media Survey and I am really looking forward to the results. If you take part you can get the results too. Take the survey here.

WordPress SEO Secrets

WordPress SEO Secrets from Michael Martine is launching today, and I am sure it will make a big splash. I have contributed a bonus and a testimonial. I guess you could say I am supporting the product!

Frankly, when Michael told me he was developing a blog SEO product I was worried.

You see, most of what I read about blogging and SEO is just plain wrong. I get sent a lot of products to review, and it seems to be the ones that focus on SEO that contain the most misleading information. The risk with SEO information is if it is wrong you can cause more damage than good. When Google is happy with you then you get a ton of profitable, targeted traffic, but upset the mighty Google and you can have a world of hurt that is a pain to clear up. Michael is a friend, how could I tell him if it was bad, or worse, damaging?

Thankfully, Michael has put in a lot of hard work to make sure that his facts are accurate, easy to follow, and most importantly, based on his and his clients real world experience of gaining search rankings.

Yes, blogs are said to be decently optimized out of the box, especially WordPress, and especially when you use DIYThemes Thesis Theme but that is only the beginning. You can gain so much more traffic very easily when you know how. Anyone who is a member of my Authority Blogger Course or has been through my coaching or consulting already knows the difference search optimization can make to a blog. Better search rankings are there for the taking, and any one of Michael’s tips could give you the boost you are looking for.

Now, inevitably you might be thinking that you can get this information for free from websites and forums. That might be true, if you have the time, and can filter out the good advice from the bad, and find immediately implementable tips rather than abstract theories and untested ideas. WordPress SEO Secrets puts everything you need to know in one package, with a guide book and walk-through videos not just telling but showing you exactly what you need.

Think: How much more traffic and profits will you make when you rank higher in the search engines? Much more than this product costs I bet, and hey, there is a full money back guarantee, so there is no risk in trying it.

If you are blogging on WordPress and want a boost in search traffic then I recommend you grab WordPress SEO Secrets today, before the price goes up.

Check your Twitter Follower Count and compare it against your Blog Subscriber Count. Which is the bigger number? Which of those counts is growing faster?

I asked my Twitter followers this question, and overwhelmingly the answer came back that you have more Twitter followers or Twitter is catching up fast and likely to overtake.

The folks who have far fewer Twitter followers than blog subscribers are those who I would call “Well Established”. Their audience has been subscribed for a long while and in large numbers, while their Twitter following is recent and likely made up of a subset of their huge blog or email list audience. Uber bloggers like Darren Rowse and Brian Clark come to mind, and internet marketers who can call on hundreds of thousands of email subscribers like Frank Kern, Jeff Walker, and Rich Schefren.

Why is Twitter Overtaking Blog Subscriber Count?

In the case of Twitter dominating, I believe this is down to the relative ease of recruiting followers and the method in which it happens.

Twitter is like blogging but accelerated and concentrated. Rather than links, comments and trackbacks, we discover new people to follow through replies, both to you and to others. If someone replies to me with an interesting comment, or if someone I am following has an interesting conversation with someone I haven’t discovered, I am more likely to follow them. People who would otherwise go unnoticed in the blogosphere have found attention far more efficiently in the Twittersphere.

This is even more pronounced when you get noticed by the Twitter movers and shakers. As in the blog world where an A-List link can boost your subscriber count, this happens much more often on Twitter. Tweets are cheap, it isn’t a big deal to fire off a message, compared to writing up a blog post, so a conversation with a big named Tweeter can drive hundreds of follows with little effort or risk on either side.

There is also the “reciprocal follow” where someone follows you so you follow them back. It doesn’t happen all the time but it is virtually unheard of in blogging.

In the case of personal blogging, Twitter has mostly taken a big chunk of the action. Before we would subscribe to the feed of people we wanted to stay in touch with. Family, friends, or just people who we found interesting. Twitter now provides the same role, with the bonus of immediacy of updates and instant interaction.

The End of the Blog Feed?

There is much to be said for the blog, or email newsletters. Not least is depth and detail that is not possible in 140 characters. But that in itself could be seen as a disadvantage as reading more than a few sentences feels like “effort”. Writing a few hundred words even more so. 140 characters means “just the facts”.

Blogs will more and more have to provide value greater than mere links, quips and trivialities. The chit-chat conversation has moved, and your content and community will need to evolve. Discussions on blogs will need to take more thought and provide more value.

What Should We Learn?

People with large, established audiences, can add many more Twitter followers just by pointing out their Twitter Feed, but to move their audience to follow in quantity will require the promise of something over and above business as usual. That requires interaction and original content. Not everyone will have the time or see the benefit, so we are unlikely to see 1:1 matches across the board, however those that do engage will benefit from viral effects and social audience growth.

Chris Brogan is the reverse of the big-blogger stereotype. While obviously being an established blogger pre-Twitter, it was social media and Twitter especially that cemented his popularity and profile, and therefore I see his Twitter following fueling his blog subscriber count growth through fantastic content promoted via cleverly tweeted links. The lesson here is your Twitter Feed can grow your blog if you model successful Tweeters like Chris B.

Either way, you need to:

• Provide unique value in both Twitter and Blog.
• Drive followers to your sites with carefully crafted and selected links.
• Encourage subscribers to engage you in conversation in Twitter.
• Be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both.
• Continue to observe those who are gaining traction and learn from their example.

What Do You Think?

Are you seeing this phenomenon? Have your own theories? Please share your thoughts in the comments, or of course, on Twitter

Benefiting from social media network effects requires you to be vigelant about who you are connecting with.

Benefits of Growing Your Social Media Network

In general the more contacts you have, the more you will benefit from social media, or any network for that matter:

• More opportunities
• Greater access to expertise, information, news
• Frequent, valuable feedback
• Accelerated growth through viral effects
• Lower cost and better quality attention

There can be downsides of course, mainly in the area of “noise” and time spent maintaining many loose connections.

Your experience of growing your social network connections will be down to your management of it.

Due to the annoyance and productivity problems, many people aim to keep their network contained and high quality.

This is a perfectly good solution, and precisely what I was doing with my FaceBook account. The maintenance impact of the silly side of FaceBook, and other services, meant I retreated to Twitter.

Thing I have discovered is I have a history of trying and abandoning social networks, only to “get” them on my second trial. Each one will succeed or fail based on who you interact with and how. Right now I am giving FaceBook another go, based mostly on experiments I am observing from people like Frank Kern (who up to now I considered to be a total IM guru but behind the social media curve, go figure!).

Maintaining Signal Versus Noise

I have found that Twitter has provided me with a good training on maintaining signal versus noise. The solution is simple – Set a standard and ruthlessly stick to it. If you follow people who pester you with nonsense or tweet about their eating habits, you only have yourself to blame. It’s not Twitters fault, it’s not FaceBook, it is your choice of friends.

When you think about it, you wouldn’t blame a restaurant for your boring dinner conversation, would you?

How to Stop Social Media Taking Over Your Day

• ONLY SHARE WHAT IS SAFE TO SHARE – Once you connect to people outside your close friends and family you need to restrict the information you place in these networks. If in doubt, keep it to yourself.
• Observe before following.
• If people are taking too much of your time, drop them, and do not feel any guilt about it. There are no rules that say you have to follow everyone who follows you!
• Pick your venues and do not try to be active in all of them.
• Do not take part in time-wasting activities, such as quizzes and zombie games.
• Set Social Media time and log off when that time is over.
• Grow your network selectively and steadily – Learn how much activity you can manage.
• Use tools where appropriate.

That last one took me a while to figure out. Tools can actually hurt your productivity if they demand too much of your attention. Turn off beeps and popup message alerts, they just take you away from work. In my case using TweetDeck has helped me a great deal (when the thing doesn’t freeze on me) because it puts front and center the most important stuff while keeping less priority stuff accessible.

My Social Network Schedule

Once you have tried out a social network you can discover your own rhythm. You don’t have to live in social media like Chris Brogan or Robert Scoble to benefit from it

Right now the main social networks I am involved in are:

• Conversation – Twitter – Few times a day
• Bookmarking – Digg and StumbleUpon – Daily
• Groups/Social – FaceBook – Few times a week
• Business Contacts – LinkedIn (chris at chrisg dot com) – Weekly
• Pictures – Flickr – As and when

I find I can spend maximum an hour a day on these quite happily with only a positive impact on my business.

By sticking to this schedule, and the guilt-free policies outlined above, I have found I can maintain a large and growing network quite happily. People send me messages, I mostly reply to them, but not necessarily right away that second. People are aware and not too insulted that I don’t take part in FB games and applications. It’s all good.

As with anything Social Media, take advice (even mine!) as a guide, there are NO RULES. Do what works for you. If people do not like what you do or how, they can un-follow.

Do you have social media tips to share? Agree or disagree with me? Share your thoughts in the comments …

Reciprocation is often talked about in terms of what you can get out of it. You might be forgiven for thinking of it purely as a tactic to get other people to do what you want them to do. But, as common sense would tell you, that is not the whole story, in fact it is just a simple human trait of “give and take”.

I do something for you, you do something for me. Simple, but often abused. If you want a good reputation, you need to be a generous “giver” and not a “taker”.

Reciprocation needs to work both ways. When people do good things for you, show you have recognized what they have done and reward them.

At the very least if people do something for you then they need to be acknowledged.

So answer comments, thank people who send you feedback, link or vote up your articles, re-tweet your twitter messages, and so on. If someone subscribes to my blog they get free ebooks (more coming), as well as all the lovely regular content you would expect

What if it is more than one comment?

I don’t like “top commenter” sidebar widgets because that often turns your comment area into a quantity competition, but you still need to show gratitude for people who keep your comment area lively. Occasionally I will write up a post and thank my top commenting folks or find  a way to help them in some way.

People who go above and beyond need extra special appreciation, along with acknowledgement.

Let them know you want to show thanks even though you know they were not being kind or helpful in the hope of receiving an award. People are sometimes offended otherwise, and whatever you do, do not show gratitude with money! That is a sure way to turn friendship into offense.

On my forum we have a Featured Blogger each month, to recognize valuable community contributions. The winner gets a free Authority Blogger Course membership as well as the praise and awe of forum members.

Contributions often matter most when they are simply and honestly friendly and helpful. In October the winner was Jamie Harrop from Jamie Harrop.com who got some excellent conversations going, and last month it was Educator Dan from Daily Home Renovation Tips who we have all watched go from a cautious newbie to helping out others by sharing his blogging experiences.

What can you offer in gratitude?

Have a think what you can offer people by way of thanks. Here are some things I do that won’t cost you the earth and that you can do even if you don’t currently have any products to offer:

• Comment and guest post at their blog
• StumbleUpon submissions and social media votes
• Links and tweets to get them some attention and buzz
• Have they got something you could review?
• Add as friend to all your social media sites
• Suggest some positive improvements or tips? (be careful that you don’t throw criticism back in return for their kindness!)
• Write a “character reference” style testimonial – LinkedIn profiles are a perfect place
• Call them up and speak to them on the phone or skype

Of course you can also say “I am so grateful to you, is there anything I can do for you in return …”

If there is one thing we all need in this new media world is helpful friends, so when you find them, make them feel valued!

How do you show gratitude to people who help you out?