Recently, I created a blog strategy for a client that I thought was really pretty good.  Maybe a bit aggressive, but after reading Justin Kownacki’s post on “What I’ve Learned From Blogging Weekly Instead of Daily,” I thought that this strategy was pretty close to getting the sort of website traffic that I thought was needed to really make a difference.

It’s really pretty simple, as most things should be, and I know I don’t follow it myself, but as my parents told me several times, “Do as I say, not as I do.”  Let me know what you think or if you’ve created similar strategies.

Your Blog should have a purpose and strategy behind it to make sure that it works and doesn’t get blog rot.

Here are a couple questions to consider:

1. Why are we doing this?
   • because it’s fun?
   • to find business?
   • to show off our thought leadership?
   • increase customer engagement?
   • PR for media, news, social networking and other bloggers?
   • Improve search engine optimization?
   • Provide a way to disseminate information?
   • Recognize and promote employees, clients, partners, projects, etc.?
2. How will we know it’s successful. What metrics are we setting for ourselves?  Can we put numbers to this?
   • Analytics, increased traffic, time, pages, etc
   • Comments on blogs
   • Links to blog postings
   • Increased leads
   • SEO
   • Social Media mentions.

1. Purpose of the blog. The blog should show that you are a collection of experts that are not only knowledgeable in your respective fields, but excited about learning and sharing what you see, know, experience and demonstrate in your key business areas of expertise.

2. Solve a problem or identify a solved problem. This is somewhat related to number 1. Part of your strategy should be solving a problem, or another way to think about this is responding to issues from clients or to just find a way to be useful and relevant – with examples.

3. Be the Subject Matter Experts (SME). This will help determine your content strategy and help build your brand. Demonstrate what you’ve done and how it’s improved our success or our clients’ success.  Wave your own flag a bit.

4. Optimize our content for SEO. Do a bit more work to get the right titles and keywords for the post.  Find keywords that support the blog and the post.

5. Be honest, encourage 2 way conversations. Create content that is open and honest and is truly trying to offer solutions.  Give of yourselves without needing anything in return accept happy readers.

6. Monitor the world. Create searches on keyword or clients to watch what people are saying in the world.  Re-tweet, create a post about it or tell your client.  If there’s a client you’re trying to land, monitor what’s being said about them to find a way to respond. See Number 3 “Be the SME.”.

Some bullets on process:

• Address a business need
• Participate in other industry specific blogs, LinkedIn answers, business.com answers.  Guest post both ways whenever possible.
• Encourage online reviews of your work
• Be strategic not trendy
• Focus on long-term engagement, not a short term hit.
• Social media is NOT an experiment.  It is a proven, strategic, integrated part of your website.
• Test, Measure, Optimize, Repeat.
• Frequency: 1 major article per week, several supporting per week – create a schedule and trade off.
• Social connections.  Connect the blog to pre-determined set of social media outlets.  Don’t do all of them, but go deep in the ones we do.
• Take into account customers, competition, your Unique Value Proposition.

I regularly find myself with way too many tabs open of good, interesting articles I find via email, twitter, facebook, and you know, all the Social Media avenues that everyone knows about.  It really slows my browser down to have so many windows open (more than what I’m listing below).   I don’t want to lose all these pages, but I don’t feel like bookmarking them all either as then they just get filed away never to be seen again… So, I thought I’d list them all here so I can FINALLY close my browser windows and be able to find them again…

So, here goes, in no particular order.

Why Should a Business Have a Social Media Marketing System in Place? – Social Media Bits

WordPress Firewall Plugin – SEO Egghead

Here’s What You Should Do to Improve Your Blog Today – Pro Blogger

How to Make an Absolute Fortune From Your Blog (Really) – Pro Blogger

5 Tools I Am Willing to Pay for [And Recommend] to Improve My Blogs – Pro Blogger

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech – Swift Kick Online

15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From – Open Forum

5 brand blogs to learn from – iMedia Connection

8 Cool WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins – Chase Sagum

Corporate Blogging — Expert Series: Interview with Lou Hoffman. Part 1 – Steve Farnsworth

The 10 Best Infographics for Internet Marketing Pros – Marketing Pilgrim

100 Days of Real Food – Jason Leake & Lisa Leake

Getting started with “Getting Things Done” – 43 Folders

21 Simplicity Tips from the Worlds Most Popular Bloggers – Live Simply

10 Easy To Implement Flash Based Mp3 Players For Your Website – Web Design Booth

Five Rules For How To Make Things Go Viral – Tech Crunch

What I’ve Learned From Blogging Weekly Instead of Daily – Justin Kownacki

Yeah, solar and wind power are nice. But you need the grid to get off the grid. – Christian Science Monitor

50 Surprising Facts About Social Media – EduDemic

Alex Bogusky interviews Robyn O’Brien – The FearLess Cottage via YouTube

Technology to liven up your creative – iMedia Connection

8 Powerful Ways to Use Facebook Landing Tabs – Social Media Examiner

Website design: 12 sites dissected – Going beyond “pretty” – iMedia Connection

How Women Use the Web – Mashable

I’m a firm believer that change is good.  Good for everyone involved.  It always has been and I expect it always will be.  Sometimes we know right away and sometimes it takes a bit longer to understand this.  For me, this change is very good.  The last few months has seen a transition for me from FreshCurrent to Vermilion Design + Interactive in Boulder.  The change is very good and I’m very excited about it.

Below is my official release:

Let the mountains talk, let the rivers run. Once more, and forever. -David Brower

April 1997 was a long time ago.

The last 13 years was definitely an amazing experience. I followed the currents wherever they led me with this business and recently it became obvious that the next part of my journey no longer included FreshCurrent. So, with a HUGE thank you to everyone I’ve come into contact for the last 13 years, FreshCurrent is officially closing down.

If you need to get a hold of me for business reasons, please continue to use the email address you have, or you can get a hold of me for a while at info [at] freshcurrent DOT com. Phone service won’t last long (and isn’t checked much) so email is truly the best way to get a hold of me. If you still need help with your web project, contact me and I’ll help to make sure you’re taken care of either with the firm I’m with now, or another.

With eternal gratitude, Mark Peesel

P.S. for those of you with domain registrations, spam filtering and/or email newsletter subscriptions, your services will not be interrupted, but I’ll contact you individually as accounts are migrated. Thanks!

So, A month ago today, our executive suites notified everyone that they couldn’t pay their bills and were shutting down operations in our Lakewood office.  And, to top it off, all of us were being evicted (apparently one firm had JUST moved in the week before).  We had or have, until December 1st to vacate.

Almost 3 weeks ago, after I forwarded all of our mail to a new PO Box, I suddenly stopped receiving mail.  Nothing but an empty box day after day.  I talked to my local post office and they  all seemed fine to them, in fact, the postal worker said “the check’s in the mail” referring to having to wait for my mail patiently and that it would probably arrive.  Not overly helpful and no other suggestions. He basically left me to deal with it on my own time and not his.  Hm.

I called the Post office near our office and a nice woman (Leslie) said that in fact there had been a glitch in the software and that all of my mail was sitting in the forwarding facility somewhere here in Colorado, and that no, I couldn’t go there to collect my mail.  She wouldn’t even tell me where it was; only that it was the facility where all the lonely pieces of mail went to get the little yellow forwarding stickers put on.  She took my number and said she’d call back.

3 days later and nothing,until I finally get a call back (today) and it’s Leslie saying she found my mail and where should she send it.  (I found it quite amusing that she would mail it to me).  But, she guarantees I’ll have it tomorrow, apparently by some inter-office mail system and not the “real” mail system, because if you can’t trust your own system, you better have a trustworthy back up.

So, after more than 2 weeks of no mail, I should finally get it all tomorrow – if it doesn’t get lost in the mail again… I’ll let you know.

Like all of you, I have family members and friends who have served or are currently serving in the Armed Forces in some capacity.  Thank you to all of you and your families for your willingness and desire to make this huge sacrifice.  Come home safely!

Google seems to agree…

So, I know the actual birthday was October 8, but, I still wanted to create a bar code with one of the many free bar code generators out there.  So, happy belated birthday to the Bar code! (Here’s the one I used).

I recently downloaded the free iPhone app from Photoshop.com where you can take a picture and do fun things to it on your iPhone. It’s really pretty cool!  Here’s a screen shot of a photo in editing mode:

Photoshop app editing window

You should download it, it’s really cool!

I edited a few photos, then uploaded to my free account online, and then logged int to view the photos on my phone.  One would think that if anyone would know that the iPhone can’t yet do flash, it would be Adobe.

Photoshop #fail

I also like how they tell me to get the latest version of flash as if they couldn’t tell I’m using an iPhone.  This could have been a nice ajaxy site too.

But, Adobe, please don’t change the app, it’s really great!  Let’s get flash to work on the iPhone!!

Here’s a sample I did in about 3 taps.  It was fun, easy and it has many options…

Photoshop.com iPhone app sample

For a couple years now I’ve been feeling the need to not promote building traditional websites anymore, but instead to help clients be part of the conversation around their product and let that lead them to what they need to do online. Back when we started building websites more than 13 years ago, they were a very static thing. Difficult to build, modify and add on to, and yet, the thing everybody wanted and needed to help market themselves. So how’d that work out? Pretty well for a while, until 2001 when people finally realized a sock puppet couldn’t sell dog food very well.

Their motto? “Pets.com, because pets can’t drive.” Well, they can’t buy online either…

Where am I going with this? Well, today I saw a twitter feed from @LenKendall that went to a website  from DigitalBuzz.com with stats for website trends for large brands and then stats for the social media websites.  Company website stats are falling while social media stats are rising… quickly.

The author, Aden Hepburn, suggests two main reasons.  First, that people are spending all their time on social networks and getting the info they need there, and that they’re getting info via RSS feeds and from the very same social networks to which the brands are pushing information.

This doesn’t really mean that the big brands are getting less and less popular, but that they are and need to be pushing more content into Social Media to be successful.  And sure enough, many of them are.

And while the Pets.com sock puppet was funny for a while, it didn’t yet capture the social media in a way that was meaningful and profitable (according to Wikipedia, they were “selling merchandise for approximately one-third the price it paid to obtain the products.”)

So, according to DigitalBuzz.com:

The fact is, agencies and brands will need to work out how to deliver the relevant content, branding and experiences they are currently achieving on their own websites, into highly competitive social networks, feeds, apps and widgets, where every “campaign” or “offer” has to be groundbreaking just to get noticed… and then there was tracking…!

In short, It’s all about the Conversation.  Are you being part of it?

As I look through log files for clients and potential clients, I’ve noticed some interesting trends.  First, the website traffic of companies without social media programs in their marketing plans generally have fairly random, but flat traffic.  And those that include social media planning in their marketing campaigns have increasing traffic with significant spikes around their marketing campaigns.

Some of you may be wondering what a Social Media Strategy is…  Well, from my point of view, it’s any way that you can start or add to a conversation with current or future clients.  Of course you all know about Twitter, Linked in and blogs (links are to my accounts, btw), but maybe you don’t know how to use them, or aren’t using them enough.   Here are some ideas:

Here are 6 ideas to develop a Social Media Strategy:

1. Find a way to start a conversation

   This can mean many things, but basically, it’s a way for you to find out what the world is saying and how you can participate in that conversation.  For instance, you could search Google trends for topics that relate to your business.  In this example, I’ve used the terms “toys.”  From this we can learn several things.

   A. People search on the term exponentially higher at the end of the year. (no surprise)
   B. Toys are big in the UK. (interesting)
   C. The top US city for Toys is Philadelphia. (interesting)

   You can also use the Wordtracker tool to learn what people are asking using your keyword, in this case, Toys:

   1	where can i get free toys for christmas	590
   2	where is the nearest toys r us store	566
   3	super why toys	296
   4	what are the top ten toys this year	249
   5	how to make wooden toys	241
   6	how much are my star wars toys worth	127

   What does this mean?  Well, this is when we get into local search where you can focus your marketing efforts by location, keyword and actual, user questions.  For instance, if you’re giving away free toys for Christmas, then you should be answering that question on your website.

2. Start the conversation with a blog

   I’ve found the best, fastest and easiest way to get content out to the world is a blog.  Blogs are fairly easy to set up and maintain.  You can get free one or get one included with a basic hosting account many places.  If you already have a website that works well, than use this as an add-on to your website.  Do research and post regularly.  My advice is one really good, in depth article per week with several quick-hit articles during the week. (read mine at It’s all About the Conversation)

3. Get a Twitter account, even if you think it’s silly, it can’t hurt

   Twitter may not be for everyone and, unfortunately, it’s getting hurt by spammers and fake accounts, but it is still useful in many ways.  And with a recent $100 million in investment money, I expect it will get better.  And just because you have a twitter account, doesn’t mean you have to Tweet all the time.  Let your blog tweet for you, after all, that’s one of the many things it can do.  It will turn your blog entries into tweets so you don’t have to!  And, the best part is that all of your Tweets become search engine bait. So, get a Twitter account, start tweeting, search on Twitter trends to find more users similar to yours and then retweet their tweets too. (Follow me here)

4. Use Facebook more

   Of course you have a face book account already as most people do. While I typically keep my business contacts out of Facebook, I’ve found it’s nice to occasionally include what I’m doing in my status updates.  And again, this can be done automatically via your blog or twitter account. (If your a friend, friend me here)

5. Get a LinkedIn account

   LinkedIn is the professional version of Facebook and is pretty much business oriented. It’s a great place to list your business services and accomplishments.  It can also include your blog via a widget and has a status update that can be managed remotely.  It is also very search engine friendly. (If you’re a business contact, find me here)

6. Email Marketing is still key

   Email marketing still remains one of the best way to be in touch with your customers.  I know that I haven’t been great at it, but I am better at updating my blog and Twitter account.

The goal with all of this is to create a variety of avenues with which to distribute your message. Many of these can be tied together so you only have to update one and the rest get notified.  There are many other ways to get the word out, but these are the top performers and will get you more traffic, guaranteed.  If you have questions or ideas, please let me know.  I can also help to manage the process and submissions so you don’t need to worry about it.  Contact me for a free analysis.

I was recently followed by an affiliate marketer from Australia claiming that she could “guarantee 25,000 followers in 90 days.”  There are 2 things wrong with this statement.

First, why do you want 25,000 followers?  Seriously, do you think they all really care what you have to say?   There is so much twitter spam out there and the real guarantee here is that your followers will be lousy.  Here’s a good summary from WebWorkerDaily.com describing the result of too many followers well.

How Auto-Gathered Followers Hurt You

There are services available that claim to increase your follower account automatically. These are a bad idea, however, because auto-gathering followers creates:

• Chaos and noise on your Twitter stream if part of the automated follower-building process you’ve adopted entails “auto-following back.” That reduces the value of your Twitter stream as a listening tool and information source.
• Followers who aren’t listening to what you have to say. That diminishes the value of marketing anything on Twitter and reduces the chance of being heard at all.
• Overinflated follower numbers, which are a turn-off for those looking to make meaningful connections. Many people use the “follow-to-follower ratio” as part of assessing someone’s “worth” on Twitter, as opposed to sheer number of followers. For example, if someone is following 48,895 people and has 46,975 followers, that looks suspiciously like they are fishing for followers rather than genuinely interested in interaction.
• Automated activity in your Twitter account that you don’t control.
• The possibility that your Twitter password gets into the hands of an untrusted third party.

And secondly, This person was guaranteeing 25,000 followers but only had 11,000 themselves!  If you’re gonna say you can do something for me, you netter be able to do it for yourself first.

My advice is to pick your followers carefully.  Don’t auto follow everyone. Then check out their twitter page first to see if you’re even interested in reading what they have to say.

A few rules I have for who I won’t follow.

1. Are their tweets boring?
2. Are all their tweets inside jokes?
3. Are all their tweets trying to get me to buy something form them that I know is gonna be too good to be true?
4. Do they cuss?
5. Is your profile picture a picture of you barely in a bikini?

Basically, if they offer something I’m interested in and will benefit from, I’ll follow them.  Likewise, I try to have my tweets offer some good information that I hope someone will benefit from.  If you aren’t interested in what I have to say, I hope you don’t follow me either.

Currently, I’m following 149 people and that’s almost too many.  Fortunately, there’s only about 10 of them who post regularly that I’m interested in.  Otherwise, it’d be too much to follow.

So, If you like what I have to say, follow me at twitter.com/mpeesel, don’t worry, I don’t tweet too often.

PS.  While researching this article, I found a great article in a blog that I’d never seen before talking about how bad thousands of followers were and the bad tactics affiliate marketers….  It sounded great until I checked his twitter account and found it was FULL of affiliate marketing links for making quick money, losing quick weight and more.

I now have a number 6 on my list: People who send inconsistent messages and don’t practice what they preach.