Social Media Guerilla » Social Media Marketing

How to Build a Blog Community in 6 Easy Steps!

GuerillaRoberto — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:09:56 +0000

You should already be familiar with these sites!

That’s right, Guerilleros! As I promised, today we are going to look at how YOU can build a loyal fan base around your blog! I discussed the importance of a blog in the last post, and today I am going to give you 6 steps to follow for building a blog community that can attract real attention. Everything in it is easy, and with a little maintenance, you can have a killer blog following!

1) Provide Quality Content! (Duh!)

No one is going to read a blog with nothing on it, or worse, nothing good on it. So get a writer, or sharpen your pencil, because without some awesome content, written well, no one cares about your blog. Should this even be listed as a step?

The key is quality. An excellent test for this is to ask your self, Would I put this on my personal blog? If the answer is No, get back to writing. And it can’t be stressed enough: A Blog Is Not An Advertisement! You’re trying to give value to your readers, not sell them something.

2) Comment, Comment, and Comment Some More!

You can pack in as many keywords as you like, but that method is going to take some time to yeild results. Wouldn’t it be nice to find a large group of people who would be likely to be interested in your blog, all at once? You can! Unless you are blogging about something really obscure, someone else is already blogging about it. So go to their sites and leave comments.

But don’t just agree and leave a link. That’s not helping you. Leave insightful comments that show you know what’s up in your subject. Leave enough comments, and the readers will follow. Keep leaving comments, and you might get a link back! It takes time, but it will work!

3) Socialize Your Blog!

This is easy as pie. Put your posts up on Digg, StumbleUpon, all the major social bookmarking sites. This is a social media marketing page, and since you’re reading it, this too should be a given.

4) Keep Socializing!

Seriously, keep at it! Every word you write should go on all of these sites. And not just your writings either. you want to be very active on these sites, so people start to recognize your name, and trust you as a source for high caliber content.

5) Share the Page!

No one goes to just one person for advice, and that’s true for your blog, too! So instead of letting the reader go somewhere else for that second opinion, bring it to them. Ask other blog authors to write a piece for your site. They should be honored you asked, plus it’s free publicity for them, as well as a way to increase their followers with your followers. And your fans stay loyal, because you brought them a whole new place to learn from. Win-win for everyone!

6) Spread the Word Domestically!

Nothing is more aggrevating than asking an employee of your clients if they saw their picture on the blog, and they reply “What blog?” Really? Why are we even bothering, if your client’s employees don’t even know about it?

The largest fan base is initially composed of an extended network made up of the friends of people directly connected to the blog. AKA, the employee’s friends and families are going to get the word out a lot faster than you. Use it!

That’s it folks! Building a blog community doesn’t get any easier than that. Yeah, it’s a little time consuming, but it’s worth it. Once you have a loyal fan base, you’re set. And speaking of loyal fan bases, make sure you join the revolution, and become a Social Media Guerilla!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

Social Media Blindside

GuerillaRoberto — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 01:41:19 +0000

Good Morning Guerilleros! Actually it’s about 2:30 in the afternoon my time, but it’s AM somewhere. Today the Guerlla Chefe suggested we discuss proper use of a blog. We’ve been discussing the proper way to utilize a blog, and felt that it might be an appropriate discussion for this blog. And it kind of goes hand in hand with the last post on getting people to read your blog.

Too often it seems that people want to use their blogs as long winded advertisements. That’s not an effective use of a blog. People don’t come back to a blog that’s just a string of commercials. They want content. They want to be informed. And there are several good ways to do this, but generally, I tend to go with two.

My favorite style is to talk about what is going on at the clients place of business. This makes people want to come around more often, so they don’t miss the excitement. Or they see what they DID miss, and make doubly sure to go the next time. It also drives more of the client’s clientele to the blog posts, because they can relive the event they participated in. Try getting a member’s name into the post for bigger bang. We occasionally do member profiles on a fitness club site. It works well for everyone. And it’s just more interesting.

But sometimes you have a client that is boring as hell. Like a hotel that doesn’t throw parties or anything. In that case, give info. Like the top sight seeing spots in the hotel’s area. Or maybe give the top ten travel tips. Shoot a video, and talk about it. Do not just repeatedly slam blog posts about how great the rooms are, or how low the rates are.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t do an ad post every now and again. I mean, you are selling a business here. Just spread them out over a couple posts. And unless you work at a place that is really jamming, you’ll need to use both techniques, and maybe a few you figure out on your own.

Here’s my question for the week. What would you like me to talk about next time? You tell me, I’ll talk about it, even if I have to pull the Guerilla Chefe out to answer it. Preference goes to questions about writing. Hey, I know writing, what do you expect? See you next time, Guerilleros!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

How to Get People to Read!(At Least a Little)

GuerillaRoberto — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:02:25 +0000

Hello Guerilleros! Today I want to share a variety of content tips. These may be basic to some of you, but hey, we get new people coming to the site everyday, and they might not know this. I had to learn it, and so did you.

Apparently no one actually READS anything online, they scan it for content, and just read things that catch their eye. Except for my faithful Guerilleros, you guys read every word of these posts, right? Right?!

Since people are only reading what catches their eye, you need to make sure you draw attention to what you want people to be sure to read. How?

Write it in big letters!

You probably saw that before you even actually read that far. Now there are two ways to look at this. Either put what you want to make sure people read in the big letters, or, and this is a trick I use sparingly, make it kind of obscure.

What? Don’t make it clear? Well, here’s where a little knowledge of psychology is useful. People are curious. If they see big words, telling them something that seems a little random, they are more likely to read the surrounding info to see why you capitalized it. This gets them to read even more than just the words in big letters. But if you over do it, they will get frustrated, and not read any of what you wrote.

Another trick is to use bold letters. Again, the eye is naturally drawn to things that stick out. Bold letters certainly do. They also add emphasis to your writing, such as what I did in my last paragraph with the word “why”. And again, the obscure trick works here too. People read more of the surrounding content to see why that one particular word or phrase is bold.

One more trick I’ll share is using bullets. Bullets have several uses.

They also draw attention
They present your info in a clear manner
They allow you to make several points with out all the damn commas
They make people think your presenting a lot of info
They allow you to summarize all your important info so hopefully they’ll read it in the bulleted list

Again though, don’t over do it. Maybe one bulleted list for every 250 words or so.Also, don’t get crazy on the length of the list. Five bullets, maybe six. Otherwise people just start scanning the list.

Your bestbet is to combine all three, like I did in this post. You can even combine all three together for maximum eye draw. Here is an example”

Tips to get people to actually read what you wrote!

Write in big letters!- People are drawn to them.
Use the bold key!- Use it to draw the eye, or for emphasis.
Bullets, bullets, bullets!- Present your info in a neat and orderly manner.
I didn’t give a fourth tip!- Bulleted lists are kind of pointless if you only put three things on it.

See? Did you read this whole article or just the things I drew attention to?Here Are Some Similar Posts:

Can Social Media Work For Chiropractic Too?

GuerillaRoberto — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 01:28:09 +0000

The origins of chiropractics?

Hello Guerilleros! So much for the consistency I promised last week, huh? But here we are again today! And today, instead of giving you a specific tip, I am bringing you a rather unique resource I found while searching for some ideas for one of my clients. A whole website devoted to using social media, specifically for chiropractors.

The site is full of interesting info tailored to help chiropractors use social media for promoting their business. In a recent post, he even gave examples of iPhone apps that could be used. All for chiropractors.

Obviously, if you have a chiropractor for a client, this website is extremely useful to you. You can thank me and we’ll see you next time. If you don’t have a chiropractor for a client, which is probably most of you, you may be thinking I just found an easy way out of doing a quality post. Here’s a great example of a chiropractor in the Outer Banks that is using social media very effectively.

Well, your wrong. this site has tons of great ideas that would really fit into any business. Replace the word “chiropractor” with the word “pizza store” and BAM! instant help. But even more intriguing is the fact that this person devotes his whole site to chiropractic social media. Is it smart to provide social media for only one profession?We’ll ignore the fact that he IS a chiropractor.

I say if you can get enough clients that are not in competition with each other, go for it. A large part of my clientele is based around Jiu Jitsu. (Imagine that, guerilleros.) I had only the vaguest idea of what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was when I started writing for my first client, who happened to be a Jiu Jitsu organization. And through a little rapid learning and a lot of some help from the Guerilla Chefe, I quickly learned enough to write about it, and picked up several more Jiu Jitsu accounts nationwide.

However, none of them are in competition with one another. They are all located in different parts of the country. This is of great benefit to me, because it allows me to use the same posts on their respective Facebook pages, and use similar items on their blogs, saving me time. Notice I said similar, not the same. I never recycle content. But I will use the same concept for more than one piece.

So if you can specialize, it can save you some time and effort, allowing you to take on even more work! And that’s what it’s all about right?

Oh, and I now practice Jiu Jitsu with the Guerilla Chefe.Here Are Some Similar Posts:

A Change Has Come…

GuerillaRoberto — Sun, 23 May 2010 03:16:12 +0000

I am a writer by trade.

Hello Guerilleros. I am Guerilla Roberto. As you are probably aware, the site hasn’t been updated much lately. Unfortunately for us, but fortunate for him, our Guerilla Chefe has been overwhelmed lately with new projects that are sucking up all of his time.

As a result of this social media frenzy, I have been asked to step in and take over for awhile. And for my first post, I will just introduce myself. Next week we will serve up a new tip or trick from the mouth of the Guerilla Chefe himself.

I am not exactly a social media guru, I am a writer. Hence I will now be writing this blog. As a friend and co-worker of the Guerilla Chefe, I have unwittingly been involved in the chaos that is social media marketing. So far, it has been very good to me, and I hope to share some of the things I have learned along the way. I hope you all enjoy my style as much as you do our Guerilla Chefe.

And while I don’t know what the future holds, I do know the revolution hasn’t ended. In fact, we’re just entering a new phase. From now on, this site will be updated every week at least once. That’s right, we’re bringing some consistency to the site (and some better grammar!)

And for my final parting shot, how many of you can say Guerilleros out loud, with the correct pronunciation? That’s a tongue twister!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

How To Engage Local Audiences With Social Media Marketing

guerilla — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:58:44 +0000

pinpoint your social media marketing to your local audience

It’s with an immense pleasure that I invite all of you guerilleros and guerilleras to join me in a great run-through of Social Media Marketing strategies geared for local businesses.

I’ll be at a BlogTalkRadio show on Thursday afternoon with Marnie Swedberg and you’re in for a real treat.

Here are the details:

When: Thursday 02/25
Time: 4:00pm
Call-in #: (646) 727-2510
Address:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marniesfriends/2010/02/25/engage-your-local-audience-with-social-mediasm

As you’re very much aware, Social Media has no borders or boundaries, and despite its wonderful benefits, connecting with your neighbors online has always been somewhat of a challenge.

Mentor Marnie

Marnie Swedberg is a community leader, mom, brick & mortar and online entrepreneur that hosts a popular radio show on BlogTalkRadio. She’s the utmost definition of a successful Guerillera.

However, even a guerillera such as Marnie has her issues dealing with a local audience – she owns a restaurant and wants to reach her community via Social Media.

Based on that, here’s what you’ll be learning at the interview:

How To Set Realistic Goals
What Exactly Can You Blog About To Motivate Community Engagement
The Difference Between Social Networking & Social Media Marketing (And why most business owners get it all wrong)
The Most Suitable Platforms For Local Businesses (Hint: You’re probably already on it!)
How To Integrate Blog, Facebook, Twitter To Minimize Your Efforts And Maximize Your Exposure
A Tool That Lists Every Known Twitter account In Your Area
And The Best (And Free) Way To Track Your Results

If I’m missing anything, let me know. Post a comment here with your question or shoot me a reply over @leosaraceni.

See you there!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

Is The Dell Outlet Twitter Campaign Success Duplicable?

guerilla — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:43:50 +0000

Dell Outlet Twitter Campaign Duplicable???

Guerilleros, my sincere apologies for completely abandoning this community for almost 3 months. Hopefully you were able to survive without my guerilla tips

In fact, from the Feedburner notifications I’ve been receiving, traffic to the SMGuerilla was not badly damaged. So let’s address that right now.

Recycling Ideas Make Them Fresh?

No, of course not – just like Recyclables are still trash, despite their higher value. But a wise man once said that there are no original ideas, so I’m putting my recycled Guerilla strategy to the test.

I’m sure you heard about the impressive success that @DellOutlet generated: over $2 million in sales from Twitter alone.

Great, huh?

Here’s the challenge

Can the same be done for an Online Fashion Boutique?

I’ve created an @Outlet account for them and fired up all of the inventory they had put aside for “liquidation”.

The next step was to create a special coupon (in this case, tweet10) to serve two purposes:

1 – Tracking (of course, Analytics helps too)

2 – Exclusivity (only followers have access to these great deals).

Here’s where things go a little South:

The company prefers their sales staff focused on “more important things than Twitter”.

Can Twitter create revenue?

Is Twitter A New Sales Platform?

The real reason behind Dell’s success was that they had a real person tweeting, interacting, and actually performing extensive customer service work. They shifted the focus off Dell and started retweeting quotes, participating on #followfriday, and answering @replies.

But is it the real reason? Or was Dell simply the 1st big corporation to try such strategy and benefit off of novelty?

Here’s where my guerilla suspicions come from:

None of the deals were actually that much cheaper or exclusive
Dell.com/outlet existed prior to the twitter account

Our Strategy

While the sales staff is focused on more important stuff, and since they’ve paid me for all the work upfront, I decided to run without them.

My software is updating their outlet account with offers every 10-15 min -
All offers point straight to the final sales page with that specific item on display.
We go in once or twice a day to check for @replies.

Here are the stats after 10 days of campaign:

114 Visits from Twitter.com
69 followers (as of 2/17 at 12:35am)

Considering their usual traffic source is PPC, 114 visits would cost $45.6 (at a cheap $.40 bid).

So even if the campaign turns out less than ideal, they’re at least looking at a cheaper traffic source.

What about you?

What do you think it’s going to happen to this automated Twitter sales process?

Leave your comments!!!Here Are Some Similar Posts:

How To Import Your Blogspot Blogger Into A WordPress Blog

guerilla — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:00:04 +0000

Guerilleros, you’re looking at a WordPress blog. A darn good one on my opinion.

But there are some guerilleros that still use blogspot Blogger blogs to carry their battles.

I honestly recommend anybody that is serious about their guerilla to switch to WordPress – it’s just the most intelligent weapon on your online arsenal.

So today I’m going to show you how to import your Blogger posts and pages into a new wordpress blog.

1. Log in to your WP Dashboard

Like this – yourblogname.com/wp-admin

Under Tools, click on Import

2. Under Import, click on Blogger

Import Blogger content to WordPress

3. Authorize WordPress to pull your info from Blogger

Authorize wordpress to access your blogger content

4. Grant access to your Google Account

Click on Grant Access to let WordPress pull your blogspot info

5. Click on IMPORT

Final stage: click on import

And that’s it!

WordPress, the awesome tool, converts your entire Blogger content into posts on their platform. So your brand new domain is not so brand new anymore – you’ve got everything back.

Now, if all you want is to have your blogger hosted on your own domain , read this other quick tutorial.

And, if you need a cheap and reliable wordpress hosting, check this out. I’ve got a special PENNY coupon for you.Here Are Some Similar Posts:

The Synnd software is growing HUGE – Get in now while you can!

guerilla — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:43:53 +0000

The Synnd software is reaching well over 600 members on the community

Guerilleros, I will make this quick and painless…

1. Sorry about the lack of content lately.

I’ve been swamped and having a hard time to sit down, look at data and write cool posts like the one about social media silos or social community building.

But I am working on it. That’s why I’ve been posting about Jeff Johnson’s free stuff – I figured I’d at least point you in the direction of a high-quality content provider.

2. My favorite social media marketing software is growing!

The Synnd software has now well over 600 members, which is huge for our syndication campaigns.

Think about: 600 people that get 20 credits a day free = 12000 credits going out daily (each credit means one bookmark, digg or Retweet). It’s a tremendous force to be reckoned with, specially when it can reach the first page of Digg for pretty much any category.

Yes – with 20 votes within 24 hours, your content can easily be featured on Digg or Reddit’s upcoming page – TONS of people hang out there. It’s huge traffic, free, coming straight to your site and taking action on your content!

I tould I’d make this quick, so here it goes:

CLICK HERE

Here Are Some Similar Posts:

How To Insert Images & Embed Videos In WordPress (VIDEO)

guerilla — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:36:06 +0000

This tutorial will cover really basic aspects of writing a wordpress blog post.

It shows you how to log in, add text, images, and embed a video from youtube within the body of your post.

It also explains a little about the photo gallery feature and how to manage pictures once they’re loaded into the WP interface.

Hope this helps your guerilla a bit

See you soon!Here Are Some Similar Posts: