Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Are You a Fan of The Blog Squad?

As you know from my last post about blogs vs. Facebook, my strong belief and advice to anyone in business is to use your blog as your hub site, your home base. However, that does not mean I advocate ignoring social networking sites and if you've followed me for more than a day, you know I'm quite active on Facebook and twitter and LinkedIn (a little bit less).

In my view you need to be where your audience is and then drive them back home (blog).

In case you don't know, I do have a fan page set up on Facebook. If you prefer to hang out on Facebook, then I want to be there with blogging info for you.

The Blog Squad on Facebook

One of the things I'm doing for people who join The Blog Squad Fan Club is make special fan-ONLY offers once in awhile and on the last day of the month will offer a substantial discount to a product or service. You've got to be a fan to find out and get notifications of special deals. 

There is also a discussion forum and I'll answer your questions about business blogging and social marketing. I hope you'll join me on Facebook!

By the way, if you have a Fan page on Facebook, post the link in the comments so I, and other readers, can check it out and join your community too!

Michael Stelzner Interviews Denise Wakeman

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting my colleague and King of White Papers, Michael Stelzner. I was in the San Diego area meeting with colleagues and attended a tweet-up with a 100 twitter friends. On my way back to L.A. I stopped in Poway to have a chat with Michael. 

Michael is the brilliant mastermind and organizer of the Social Media Success Summit with which I've been associated, promoting and presenting at for the past four weeks. Wednesday is the final day of the amazing online event (you can still register and get access to all the video presentations, audio, transcripts, bonuses and private forum). My presentation on business blogging concludes the series.

But I digress. Michael grabbed his Flip HD Mino and we did a short interview about blogging. Mike's first question was: is it too late to start blogging for your business?

Got your own questions about business blogging? Submit them here and blog on!

Win FREE Tickets to Social Media Success Summit 2009

I just wanted to share a great opportunity with you to win FREE tickets to Social Media Success Summit 2009 -the premier online event dedicated to helping businesses succeed with social media marketing.

Just go here to enter to win your free tickets to this awesome event.

Check this out: The grand prize is worth more than $1690 and includes two tickets to the summit (one for you and one for a friend), a social media consultation, a blog review and two best selling books!

The presenters at this online event are literally the biggest names in the industry.  They include bestselling authors and social media marketing experts such as Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV), Darren Rowse (Problogger), Mari Smith (Facebook guru), Jason Alba (wrote the book on LinkedIn), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Chris Garrett (Authority Blogger) and me (The Blog Squad).

Remember: The contest ends next week, so check it out soon. Go here to win your tickets.

 

The Blog Squad Rocked on User Friendly Thinking Show

On Friday, Patsi and I were guests on Bizzuka's User Friendly Thinking show, hosted by our good friend Paul Chaney and John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka. We had a rockin' one hour conversation ranging from blogging for business to social media to PR and where to find and how to use simple, inexpensive tools to market your business.  Here's the show...

Got Burning Blogging Questions? Ask The Blog Squad!

A New Year's gift for you...

Ask The Blog Squad

A free, open forum teleconference for you to ask your burning questions about business blogging and social media marketing.

Here's your chance to learn more about how you can get massive online visibility with blogs,
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools.

So much has happened in 2008:

• Business blogs continue to be the #1 way to attract web traffic
• Facebook and Twitter have exploded as marketing tools
• Video is easier than ever to create and use on the Web
• New ways of marketing are being defined: Content, relationship, personality & conversational marketing tactics emerge

We'll look at these emerging trends and answer your questions about how you can stay ahead of the curve in 2009.

Please join us:

What: Free Ask The Blog Squad TeleConference

When: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT)

Where: The comfort of your home or office, on the phone or via webcast

Why: Our New Year's gift to you, answering your questions, providing information you need & want

No registration required. Just show up. Use this link to get the dial-in details and post your questions about business blogging and social networking.

Click here: http://www.asktheblogsquad.com/

Hope you'll join us.

Best wishes for the New Year!

Patsi & Denise
The Blog Squad

Business Bloggers Group on Twitter

Are you using twitter yet? I find twitter to be one of the most effective ways to stay in touch with my network and then drive them back to our blogs so they can get more in depth content from us. At this point about 50% of our blog traffic is coming from twitter and Facebook!

There are a lot of great tools to help you effectively use twitter. A couple days ago I wrote about Tweetworks on Biz Tips Blog. In a nutshell it allows you to set up groups of twitter users so you can have much more focused conversations. It's helpful for finding and connecting with people in your niche who are interested in your topic/service/business.

I set up a group called BusinessBloggers. The conversations about challenges business owners, entrepreneurs and service professionals are having around their business blogs and how to use them most effectively. It's a great way to get instant (or almost instant, depending on who's on twitter at the moment) feedback and share information. It's free to participate, too!

If you're using twitter as part of your blogging and marketing strategy, you're invited to join us and join the conversation.

Are you following us on Twitter?

Denise on Twitter
Patsi on Twitter

BTW, have you seen our new Better Business Blogging program?

Social Media with Curves: Battle of the Sexes

I'm happy to announce that Patsi and I be speaking at the 2009 Social Media Telesummit, an 8 day virtual event taking place entirely over the phone January 21-30, 2009.

To celebrate the launch of the Telesummit, the host, Leesa Barnes, is holding a 2-hour preview event called Social Media With Curves.

She's invited some of the 2009 Social Media Telesummit speakers to give their answers to just one question:

"Are women changing the social media landscape?"

The women provide their feedback on December 9th @ 8pm EST and the men weigh in on December 16th @ 8pm EST.

I'd love you to join us as we discuss this topic. Register your spot now for this lively debate.

And don't forget to use the coupon code to get $70 off the tuition. Here's the code: SMWC08

As Leesa would say, "Here's to your social media success!"

Denise Wakeman Interviewed at BlogWorld Expo 08

It's amazing what you find on YouTube when you do a search on your name! I was looking for an interview I did at BlogWorld for Investor Village and I stumbled on a couple other interviews I had done as well and totally forgotten about.  Here's one I did for Sparkcast:

Related Post:
Starting a Blog? What to do BEFORE you begin.

Related Video Interviews from BlogWorld 08.

The Blog Squad Makes the Lists: Most Influential Women and Coolest Social Media Marketers, too!

Congratulations are in order... we're on two lists of coolest and most influential social media marketers, plus we've been nominated for Best Blog about Blogging by The Bloggers Choice Awards.

Excuse me, while I reach over my shoulder and pat our Blog Squad back...and I'm throwin' in a little fist pump there too. Whoo-hah! Always nice to be recognized for our online efforts especially coming from two extraordinary professionals who are pretty top-notch themselves, Lorrie Morgan Ferrero and Ron Hudson.

First, Lorrie posted over on her Red Hot Blog her list Lo’s TOP 50 COOLEST Marketers, where we were on a list of 8 others in the category of Social Networking, in good company.

1. Nancy Marmolejo
2. Mari Smith
3. Sandy Grason
4. Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman

Contest: What's Your Biggest Blogging Challenge?

I've started a new discussion topic on The Blog Squad fan page on Facebook:

What's your biggest blogging challenge?

Post your comments and challenges around business blogging. On September 30 we'll pick a random comment and do a post here, on Build a Better Blog addressing your challenge and giving you some link luv from our popular blog. Plus you might even get a bonus prize too!

Go to the Fan page and post your business blogging challenge on the discussion topic that I've started there. Only comments on the Fan Page count for the contest!

Blog on!

Denise aka The Blog Squad
@BlogSquad