jasonyormark

August 12, 2011

How Do You Define Blogging Success?

My blog often stresses me out. As much as I enjoy writing and actually having a decent audience that actually reads what I write, it’s definitely become part of my regular routine. What was once just an occasional hobby has grown into more of a responsibility now that I have established a bit of an audience. I’m always looking to grow my readership through creating helpful, informative and entertaining content, marketing such content, and engaging with like minded readers. But it can take quite a bit of time to manage all of this, especially with a full time job.

It’s gotten me thinking about how I personally define blogging success as it pertains to me. It’s obviously a question that can be answered quite differently for people depending on their particular situation. Whether it’s impressions, page views, rss subscribers, or affiliate conversions, everyone is different.

My blog isn’t really a source of income for me directly, but it has opened up quite a few doors for me in my career, so indirectly it does. For me I’ve measured success through my blog traffic, subscribers and engagement. Lately I’ve been working hard to improve my link back strategy. While I’ve been able to grow my audience and blog traffic, my engagement and back links are a little less then to be desired. It doesn’t surprise me though as this is a direct result of a lack of time. To improve my engagement I simply need to comment more on other like minded blogs. As much as I enjoy doing this, it’s a time thing. There’s only so much in the day that I can devote having a full time gig.

Back links are a whole ‘nother animal. I haven’t quite figured out my lack of success their as much, but it probably has to do with the types of articles I choose to write. I don’t often jump on topics that are timely or popular. I typically roll with ones that relate to what I experience at any given time, and I feel could be helpful or stir conversation.

It can be easy to get caught up with the numbers and try to stray away from what comes natural to you as a writer. My own desire to crack the AdAge 150 often has me banging my head on blog topic choices and how to drive my Alexa, Yahoo Backlinks, and PostRank ratings higher. Unfortunately I think for me, I will always be fairly limited as long as my blog is just a small part of what I do, and not a major time investment.

I’d love to hear from you how you define blogging success and what has and has not worked for you.

August 9, 2011

My Yearly Social Media Douchebag Audit

Along with the hyper growth of social media platforms over the past few

years, comes the army of awful marketers that spam, mislead and embellish their experience. The term Social Media Douchebag has seemed to be the winning term to describe these folks, and there are quite a few funny sites detailing their exploits (see here and here).

That being said, I feel it is my duty to perform a Social Media Douchebag audit on myself to ensure I don’t unwillingly succumb to the dark side. I’m subjecting myself to 5 questions that I feel are fairly applicable to the world of social media douchebaggery these days. Feel free to post your own questions in the comments and I’ll be more then happy to answer them as well!

Let us begin.

Reference yourself as any of the following: “social media expert”, “social media ninja”, “social media rock star”, “social media guru”, “social media warlord”, or any other warrior reference.

Test Results: Passed. I’m not a fighter…I’m a lover! (Bonus pts. for anyone who can identity the movie quote in the comments).

Claim that you are an internet celebrity. If you have to put the word internet in front of celebrity, you are no celebrity.

Test Results: Passed. The closest I’ll ever be to celebrity is Vin Diesel’s stunt double. Gonna need to eat a few more sammiches though.

Lead any social media conversation with how many Twitter followers you have.

Test Results: Inconclusive. Well, I don’t in conversation, but oh…right there at the top of my bloggy blog, I do. The jury is still out on this one, but I say it’s OK to lead with this on your website.

Use an Auto DM on all new Twitter followers including a link to my site(s).

Test Results: Passed. No problem here. Twitter…for the love of god, please add a feature to block these????

Possess a real, verifiable job in social media that has actually produced measurable business results.

Test Results: Passed…for now. I’ve been on the receiving end of a pink slip so no one is safe.

I think I’ve strayed clear of the douchebag line…for now. At least based on this year’s evaluation questions.

August 2, 2011

The Lost Art Of Getting Shit Done

On my flight back home last week I was sitting next to a woman who had her laptop out most of the flight. She was a Microsoftie no doubt, and I knew this as she was working on her yearly commitments. Commitment setting at Microsoft is a ridiculously long and tedious process that involves multiple pages of countless sections and sub-sections of big words talking about what you are going to do in the upcoming year. I never really found it very useful to my job in any capacity, but it was a necessary evil. I felt an immediate sense of relief that I no longer had to go through this process any longer. It also made me realize what I love about working at Strategies 360; we specialize in getting shit done.

It seems silly to imply that producing results requires some sort of “art”, but I can tell you first hand, that there are plenty of large organizations that get in their own way when it comes to doing so. It was one of the most frustrating things that led me to move on from Microsoft. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of incredibly talented and smart people that work at Microsoft, and I enjoyed my time there thoroughly. But I just got tired of all the process, layers of bureaucracy, and all the roadblocks that got in the way of actually getting work done and making progress. Great ideas on the front lines would never see the light of day. (Side note, I exclude Xbox from this opinion as I feel they’ve killed it from day one.)

Of course some people thrive on that sort of environment, but I didn’t. I hunger for the satisfaction of getting things done on a daily basis, an environment that encourages taking good ideas and acting on them instead of waiting for 17 different managers to review and approve. We certainly have to have some process and systems of checks and balances, but for the most part, we are laser focused on producing results for our clients and finding creative ways to do so, many times on the fly.

I suppose it’s pretty systemic for companies as they grew incredibly large to fall prey to more process, layers of management and slower innovation. However I feel like there are larger companies that continue to innovate and thrive as they grow. Some of my favorite brands such as Google & Apple continue to do so. I’d be interested to know how their internal workings have allowed them to continuously push out innovative products and services despite hyper growth.

I suppose the moral to the story is don’t get so caught up in spending countless hours on how you are going to do something, and just get in there and do it. Don’t let over planning and analyzing get in the way of progress. I believe the best results often net from learning through a bit of trial and error anyway.

It’s working for us, and I’d love to hear from you and what you might be experiencing.

July 28, 2011

Mom & Pop Need Your Social Media Help

I’ve been back home the past week or so in Chicago visiting family and friends. It’s always great to get back and visit, eat the great food, and feel some actual summer heat. Seattle has been failing in delivering any sort of summer so far.

In addition to our visit back, my wife and I were able to escape the kids for a few days and rent a cabin from a really cool place up by Lake Geneva called Seven Oaks (a great place to stay by the way if you’re in the area). For the past few days, we visited a few local hot spots, shops, historic places. It’s a pretty cool town, and the homes on the waterfront are insane.

Being in the business that I am, I’m always thinking about social media and on the lookout for local businesses that are doing it right (and in most cases, not doing it all!). The biggest takeaway I had was that there are far more local businesses that are not doing anything from a social media perspective that are. It’s actually quite amazing to me that in this day and age when it’s so incredibly easy to simply have a Facebook page or Twitter account, how few businesses that actually do.

The bottom line is this, if you are somewhat social media savvy, self-employed or looking to set up your own shop, opportunity is everywhere! If I were, I’m fairly certain that there were at least 5-10 local shops I visited that I could have interacted with and potentially scored a few leads. Now we’re not talking major businesses, here, but opportunity is opportunity. These are not major corporations in need of hefty social media plans and execution. They just need someone to hold their hands a bit and get them going. Show them how to get set up, and use these channels to engage with their customers and drive new business. Maybe you just make a few bucks on the front end helping them get up and running, a little training. But maybe you end up managing their social media efforts ongoing earning yourself a monthly retainer?

Fact is, many of these business owners KNOW they need to be doing it. But they either do not have the time, or believe they can’t afford it. In this economy? The latter simply isn’t true. They just need someone to walk in the door and capitalize on the opportunity. Maybe that’s you?

These business owners don’t realize the opportunities they are missing out on. Moral of the story? Try out some old fashioned social media and walk into a few local businesses and introduce yourself. Chances are with a little pounding the pavement, you can walk away with a few new clients.

July 25, 2011

Pitching Social Media: Key Takeaways I’ve Learned In 6 Months

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been roughly 6 months since I left Microsoft for the agency world. In that time I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and all the planning and strategy work is starting to pay off as the last few months have had me constantly driving new business for the firm.

At Strategies 360 we have a unique approach as we combine public policy & government relations work along with the communications, marketing and PR work that traditional agencies focus on. It’s been a learning curve for me as my background has primarily been focused on B2B and B2C clients. That being said, there are some definite key takeaways I’ve gleaned over these past few months that I thought might be useful to share.

Social media (as it exists today) is still in its honeymoon phase. What I mean by that is that for all the millions of users that use SM on a regular basis, most if not all of the clients that I have pitched come in to meetings having no clue how to use social media for their business or organization. While most people certainly know how to use the Facebooks and Twitters of the world, there is a fairly large disconnect on how to use these channels to contribute to business objectives & goals. Most client pitches I develop must include an initial education piece in addition to selling our firm. Quite frankly this is one of the areas of my job I enjoy the most.

What to charge for social media is all over the place. Many agencies are still trying to figure out the right pricing models for social media work. The biggest challenge is that the social media engagement piece can not be automated. It requires real people responding in as close to real time. That can be a lot of man hours, and sometimes clients fail to realize what can be involved. In addition, many social media CRM & reporting tools are still evolving allowing agencies to manage multiple clients more efficiently. Mack Collier does a great yearly wrap up that includes some research that sheds some light on the subject. Every client’s specific needs can vary quite a bit, but SM pricing should start to become more consistent as the dust settles.

Most (if not all) social media plans are heavily dependent on a strong communications plan. My team works extremely close with out communications/PR team on a daily basis. Our ability to deliver on results oriented social media strategies does not come without heavy contributions from our communications team. From editorial calendars to blog articles to reviewing social media engagement, having a communication team to partner with has been invaluable.

Of course I’ve learned much more then these 3 takeaways, but these are the ones that have stood out the most for me. I would love to hear from any of you that are in the agency or service world and what you’ve experienced as well.

July 15, 2011

The Lost Art Of Transparency Or How Netflix Dropped The Ball

I love Netflix. I think their service is fantastic, prices fair, and their integration across a variety of hardware choices is top notch. It’s one of those monthly fees I have no problem paying even when I don’t consume very much in a given month. I’ve followed their ascent to greatness burying Blockbuster in the process, and also paid close attention to the realities they have begun to face with increasing operating costs. It was just a matter of time before the major studios demanded a bigger piece of the pie. And of course it was just a matter of time before those operational cost increases effected their pricing structure.

I’ve always thought $10 bucks or so a month for unlimited streaming AND 1 DVD out a month unlimited was a terrific deal. So much so that I could never understand how they were making any money. So when Netflix recently announced they were raising their prices, I wasn’t really that fazed by it. In fact, I was expecting it. But boy did Netflix drop the ball on their communication strategy.

Straight from their announcement:

By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members.

and

Now we offer a choice: Unlimited Streaming for $7.99 a month, Unlimited DVDs for $7.99 a month, or both for $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). We think $7.99 is a terrific value for our unlimited streaming plan and $7.99 a terrific value for our unlimited DVD plan.

Really Netflix? I know there are plenty of people in the world that you might think this would fly with, but most people can read between the lines. This isn’t about offering added value or choice, it’s about you having to raise your prices because the studios are increasing your operational costs.

Netflix does a lot of things right, but not being open and transparent about their subscription changes are currently hurting them as they are taking a beating in the public’s eye. What Netflix should have done was just been open about the increase in operational expenses they are experiencing due to the studio’s demands, and that in order to continue to provide the same level of service, they have to pass some of those costs on to their customers.

People understand that the prices of things go up. It’s a part of life. Sure they would have still experienced some backlash, but nowhere near the level if they had just come out and had not try to hide it behind silly statements like the ones above.

Transparency and authenticity always reign supreme when it comes to communicating to your audience, and when you don’t, people tend to call bullshit. Netflix is learning that the hard way.

July 13, 2011

My Backlinks Strategy Sucks, And What I Plan To Do About It

I’ve written on my blog for quite some time, and I’ve had a mild amount of backlinks-free success with it depending on how you define success. I’m fairly happy with the level of engagement I get, and I get a nice size audience somewhat regularly when I actually find the time to post on a regular basis. My Google Page Rank was hovering quite nicely at 6 for quite some time, but dropped to 4 in the past few weeks. My Alex rank continues to climb a bit as I’m dancing in the 300,000 range. But where I’ve been terrible at and continue to be is with my back links on pretty much all the engines.

For whatever reason, I have a hell of a time getting my articles linked to more often. I feel that I write fairly useful and/or entertaining blog posts that most seem to find interesting or helpful. But somewhere I’m missing the boat on getting those blog posts referenced more often. I’ve never claimed to be that much of an expert when it comes to SEO strategy and backlinks, but I’ve started to really pay attention to this and ask around on how to best improve this. These are some of the steps I’m initially taking to hopefully improve my situation.

Content Syndication – I’ve got my content currently being syndicated on sites such as Social Media Today & Business2Community. What I didn’t realize is that the automated process which both use to grab your content do not properly format the author footer in a way that attributes your site that the search engines “like”. Big props to my colleague Garth O’Brien who pointed this out to me. Once I realized this, I asked the folks at B2C to switch over to a manual submission process, and I went and updated my profile box on Social Media Today so that my articles get the right attributions so I score that link juice.

Ask And You Shall Receive – I know this is pretty much a no brainer, but I just figured it was time to find quality bloggers and ask for link exchanges. The key here is to not just blindly find folks with strong blogs and ask for an exchange, but really spend some time to read and engage with like minded folks, and then politely ask. I find simply linking to them first and pointing this out makes it more likely they will reciprocate.

Actively Commenting – It’s hard enough to find the time to actually write on my blog let alone find time to engage on others, but it’s really an important part of the whole process if you’re serious about building out your own blog. I never just comment just to comment, but I definitely try to ensure I leave a few comments per day on articles I find interesting. I’m not entirely sure it’s a huge deal as it pertains to contributing to increasing my back links, but I’m told it’s a contributing factor.

I would love for those of you that have had success with this to share in the comments section so that I could potentially write a follow up post on some additional strategies that are effective.

July 11, 2011

5 Must Have Social Media & Productivity Chrome Extensions

Over the past year I’ve really worked at giving a variety of web browsers a fair shake at becoming my go to browser for every day use. I’ve used the major players such as IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and even gave RockMelt a spin (see here for my review of that platform). While I have found myself predominately using Chrome for a variety of reasons such as speed, performance, UI and quite frankly I love the extension platform. I’m not alone as usage of Chrome has climbed past 20% market share.

With my increased usage, I’ve come across a variety of social media themed extensions that I have tried out, and the following 5 are the ones I find the most useful and worthy of my screen real estate.

HootSuite Hootlet – Obviously more useful if you are using HootSuite, but useful nonetheless, the Hootlet extension allows you to quickly and easily share web links to your social media channels. If you are using HootSuite, it’s especially great as the links use their web shortener which provide you analytics so you have access to your sharing data.

WebRank SEO – I love this extension as it gives me quick access to website info such as Pagerank, Alexa, as well as pages indexed by engine and backlinks. It’s a great way to get a snapshot of your sites and where they are, as well as competing sites.

LinkedIn For Chrome – LinkedIn can easily be forgotten when it comes to social channels and sharing content, but this extension helps keep it front and center and easy to share to ensure you’re not missing out on this audience.

Xmarks & Lastpass – I group these together since Lastpass actually acquired Xmarks last year. Both invaluable productivity tools as Xmarks allows you to keep your bookmarks in sync across multiple browsers and computers, while Lastpass gives you secure cloud storage of your passwords and frequently filled in form info.

Awesome Screenshot – What a cool little tool! Makes it quick and easy to grab screenshots and annotate them as needed, then send off or save. Another great productivity tool built right in.

What are some of your favorite Chrome Extensions?

July 5, 2011

10 Short Sentences That Sum Me Up

I’ve had a hell of a time writing regularly on my blog, and I finally decided to get a sentences little help in the matter by subscribing to Chris Brogan’s Blog Topics. At first the idea of actually paying a nominal monthly fee for access to some blog topic ideas seemed silly, but word on the street seemed pretty positive on the quality so I decided to give it a spin. Time will tell if I find the value high enough to continue the subscription, but I already found an idea I really liked in the following post.

I spent some time thinking through 10 quality sentences, and the exercise was a really good one for me in that it forced me to assess where I’m at in my life with some things. It also forced me to be honest enough with myself to admit some opportunities for myself. I definitely recommend you to give it a try yourself and if you do, leave your link in the comments so I can take a look.

That being said, here we go!

As much as I’m able to see things through, I’m very much more an idea guy.
I’m fiercely competitive personally/professionally and while I lose gracefully, it never sits well with me.
I’m extremely generous, sometimes to a fault.
I’m not an emotional person outwards, but definitely internally.
The occasional time alone is necessary, but I always prefer spending lots of time interacting with others socially and in business.
One of my favorite things in the world is to make others laugh, but I don’t take advantage of it as much as I should.
I always need something in my life to look forward to, or I feel like something is missing.
I can and love getting in front of a room of countless people and speaking/performing, but I’m terrible at networking events.
I’m definitely a procrastinator, but do my best work under the gun anyway.
I’m typically embarrassed & humbled by praise, but deep down love it to death.