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"Words are only postage stamps delivering the object for you to unwrap."
~George Bernard Shaw

Melissa's Portfolio

Why blog?

12/18/2013

13 Comments

 
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By Melissa Walsh

Effective blogging requires consistency and endurance. It is not for the impatient nor for those with no marketing communications plan. "Good blogging is strategic," they say. "It leads to business partnerships and customers," they say … And so it does, eventually over time.

Good blogging requires labor hours and a commitment to spinning interesting enough blog content to attract a target audience as repeat consumers of your valuable content freebies. Ideally, these consumers will become your customers.

Is it worth it? What is blogging's ROI?

In their book, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, Darren Rouse and Chris Garrett point out that a blog has value if the blogger has these five traits:
  1. The ability to write
  2. The time to write
  3. A networked target audience
  4. The knowledge of the blog topic
  5. Credibility in the target market

A blogger's role demands making the blog content and blog readership top priority. This is why it is important to commission a quality blogger to maintain a company's blog — someone who knows how to write, knows the topic and knows the audience. Don't task the work of blogging to just anyone in the office with the time to do it, like the intern, office assistant or sales guy. 

A professional blogger develops a strategic blog plan that fits into a company's content marketing plan and marketing communications vision. Blog content can be modular and repurposed for ebook content, training or other reference collateral, social media post, or other online or print materials. It can also add personality to a company's branding.

A professional blogger also has the good sense not to treat a blog as display advertising or in-your-face e-commerce, cluttering a web page with flashy ads and frustrating pop-ups. The professional blogger instead cultivates a relationship with the target audience by offering free information that the audience desires, like tips, reviews or stories.

So back to the ROI of blogging … if you want a return on the investment of paying a person to blog for you, commission one who knows how to write, knows your topic and knows your market. Over time, your professional blogger will convert readers into customers for your business.

© 2013, Powerplay Communications


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Overview of The Zen of Social Media Marketing - part three

12/5/2013

109 Comments

 
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By Melissa Walsh

Social Media Marketing (SMM) Etiquette

“Facebook is like a coffee shop. Everyone is there for his or her own reasons, but it is a great place to strike up a conversation.” 
— Shama Hyder Kabani in The Zen of Social Media Marketing

The first rule of SMM etiquette is keeping in mind that people aren’t using SMM to shop; they’re there for conservation and to express their point of view. Your market prospects don’t want to be marketed to on SMM. They are marketing themselves as, not just who they are, but as who they want to be and how they want to be perceived. SMM forums, Kabani explains, are tidy niche markets in a virtual coffee shop. If you push sales and in-your-face advertising, they’ll feel awkward and leave the coffee shop.

To interact with your prospects using SMM, you must identify closely with your followers, so closely that your brand becomes part of their identity. So while being mindful that overall trust in advertising is eroding and that your target market prospects enter into SMM for conversation, follow these SMM etiquette guidelines:
  1. Don’t attempt to fool or manipulate a market; it will only backfire on you.
  2. Don’t “like” and “follow” everything that enters your suggestions feed. Be strategic and selective.
  3. Respect people’s virtual space.
  4. Don’t make gaining traffic your chief goal. Retain traffic with quality content and interaction.
  5. Use your real name. People like personal interaction.
  6. Balance being proactive with not being pushy.
  7. Avoid infomercials. Your SMM video posts should be no more than two to three minutes in duration with continual action depicting a glimpse into the “secret” world of your product/service.
Kabani stresses, when employing SMM in your marketing strategy, understand how it differs from traditional marketing communications. While traditional marketing speaks loudly to a market, even sometimes shouts at and dominates, SMM thrives in a community of friendly conversation with a market. So to become considered good company among your market, listening and responding in a way that makes prospects feel heard go a long way. 

In other words, while traditional marketing pushes a product/service out to a market through display advertising and direct sales copy, SMM pulls a market into a message through relationship-building and spontaneous word-of-mouth market penetration.


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Overview of The Zen of Social Media Marketing - part two

12/4/2013

238 Comments

 
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By Melissa Walsh

“If eyes are the window to a person’s soul, a website is the window to a company’s soul.” 
— Shama Hyder Kabani in The Zen of Social Media Marketing


EMS of Websites

SMM should be thoughtfully incorporated into a content marketing strategy that points prospects to your website, which is your point of sale. Therefore SMM should always lead attracted prospects to your website content. 

Kabani says, “Content is king; relevancy is power.” Be sure your content is found and shared easily by your market by 
  1. Applying SEO (search-engine optimization) principles — namely, including target search keywords and phrases and and tagging your site content with descriptive topics
  2. “Listening” to your traffic — measuring you ROI by analyzing your content likes, shares, tweets, comments and known conversions.
Your website is the EMS of your product/service.

E - Educating prospects.

M - Marketing to prospects.

S - Selling to prospects.

EMS is achieved by including all five elements of an effective website:
  1. Design for a great first impression. Present navigation and content options in an intuitive interface with a clean, uncluttered backdrop of consistent branding, color scheme and graphics.
  2. Structure the page layout and elements virtually to hold the hand of prospects through your overview presentation of your product/service through point of sale or other action decision.
  3. Present clear and concise content that differentiates your product/service.
  4. Optimize traffic to your website with fresh content (blog posts) that applies easy-to-read structure, relevant keywords and metadata.
  5. Maintain your website consistently, ensuring it remains living and interactive.



238 Comments

Overview of The Zen of Social Media Marketing - part one

12/3/2013

46 Comments

 

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By Melissa Walsh
Before social media, AIDA (Attention, Inform, Decision, Action) was the guiding formula for developing advertising and marketing communications. What’s changed is that the four parts of AIDA have become interactive via social media marketing (SMM).

In her book The Zen of Social Media Marketing, Shama Hyder Kabani presents her formula for attracting business in today’s SMM environment. In this three-part blog series, I summarize some of the tips Kabani offers in her book.

The ACT Methodology 

A - Attract, or using SMM to stand out to attract traffic. 

Kabani says that the key for attracting your market is to have “a great BOD.” You must have a Brand, or a strategy for summing up your product/service in a single word or simple phrase. Then you must present the Outcome of your product/service as a simple goal of that product/service. You reinforce the connection by promoting your Differentiator, or how your product/service is different from (better than) that of your competition. SMM is not a selling tool; it is an attracting tool.

C - Convert, or using SMM to share samplings of your product/service.

Kabani says that conversion is the sum of valuable content plus time. In other words, conversion develops from consistency in your content marketing and allowing that information to penetrate and influence your market via SMM over time. 



Rarely does an SMM post lead to an instant sale. However, it should assist your market in acquiring information about your product/service. SMM must lead your market to your best conversion tool: your website. Though SMM should not replace your website for winning customers, it should offer content freebies to customer prospects, or your content marketing consumers. This ought to lead them to your website where they can be converted to customers via the point-of-sale feature of your website. 

T - Transform, or the social proof of the attraction to your product/service.

“Social media is built on social proof,” says Kabani. Here's how:
  1. Your SMM must begin with the confidence that your product/service is good, because any negative buzz will kill your success in SMM forums. 
  2. You must leverage your success as SMM promotion. In other words, you must tell the stories of your happy customers. 
Therefore, effective SMM is always strategic. Know the benefits of your product/service for your market. Tell your customers’ stories of those benefits.

Kabani urges content marketers to engage in SMM thoughtfully, authentically and patiently. Just as one cultivates a relationship with a new friend, The ACT Methodology of SMM requires consistent interactivity with a target market over time.


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    Author

    Raised in the Motor City, Melissa Walsh is a writer and editorial guru with a background in book publishing, journalism, teaching, and applied engineering. Her identity is shared as a writer, mom,  history nerd, and hockey player. She also knows how to turn a wrench and use a scantool.

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