Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Business Blogging Info to Check Out

This week is blog crazy! Thursday through Saturday I'll be at the 3rd Annual Blog World and New Media Expo connecting with colleagues and clients in person (imagine that! it's the best part of making friends online -- meeting them in person) and soaking in presentations by the movers and shakers in blogging and new media. The energy at BlogWorld is always very high and the content has never disappointed. If you're going to be there, let me know so we can connect! By the way, it's not too late to register for the best new media event of the year AND you can still save 20% with code PB20. If you're attending BlogWord, here's an "unofficial" list of all the parties.

Back to some business blogging goodness for you...

Social Media Examiner Launched

On Monday, a brand new online magazine was launched called Social Media Examiner, designed to help entrepreneurs and business owners navigate the social media jungle! I'm proud to be part of the editorial team and invite you to check it out.  

To mark the launch, Mike Stelzner, the visionary and editor in chief, hosted four live video Q&A sessions. I was one of the guests and took on questions related primarily to blogging. When you subscribe to get free updates, you'll be alerted when the video replays are available. Mari Smith, Chris Garrett and Jason Falls also took questions during one hour video chats using the tinychat.com technology. It was a lot of fun!

My debut article is also posted: Top 10 Easy Steps to Starting a Business Blog

Up Close and Personal with Radio Red

On Monday, I also was interviewed by Bonnie Graham aka Radio Red for her Blog Talk Radio Show, Up Close and Personal.  You can listen to the one hour replay here. Bonnie really grilled me about why businesses should be blogging and questioned me about information overload and whether or not blogs are really necessary or useful for business anymore. We debated the merits of twitter and Facebook as well.  We covered some interesting territory. You can listen online or download the file to your mp3 player.

Next week I've got two blog related events: a teleseminar hosted by Travis Greenlee and another interview on Blog Talk Radio with host Becky Cortino. Details to come...

If you attended either of Monday's events, I'd love to get your thoughts, comments, feedback. Or better yet, what do you want to know? I'm working on the content for the teleseminar with Travis and can shape it anyway I want.  What's your burning question about business blogging? Let me know below.

The Digital Handshake - Interview with Paul Chaney (Part 4)

This is the final of a four part interview with Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake which was officially released on September 22. The book gets "two thumbs up" from me for its easy-to-digest, actionable steps for creating an effective social media strategy for your business.

Now for the last two questions for Paul Chaney...

What's your take on the personal vs. professional in the social media world? How much is too much when it comes to sharing personal information when you're using these tools for business?

Every time I'm asked this question, I wonder how the person can see themselves being sub-divided into two parts, personal and professional. It's not possible. You are one person and you have interests that cross both boundaries.

I see no reason to hide or segment yourself in any respect. After all, people don't want to do business with businesses so much as they want to do business with people and preferably people they know and trust. The way that best happens is by letting them see you for who you are, with all your warts. It's okay for them to know you have a family, or that you like scuba-diving, or that you play Texas Hold 'em on Facebook. Heck, maybe they do as well, and that can become a crucial point of connection that leads to a business relationship being built.

(Of course, you understand my philosophy is anchored in the notion that you should never post anything online you don't want your mother to see, so I play it safe.)

This is the final of a four part interview with Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake which was officially released on September 22. The book gets "two thumbs up" from me for its easy-to-digest, actionable steps for creating an effective social media strategy for your business.

Now for the last two questions for Paul Chaney...

What's your take on the personal vs. professional in the social media world? How much is too much when it comes to sharing personal information when you're using these tools for business?

Every time I'm asked this question, I wonder how the person can see themselves being sub-divided into two parts, personal and professional. It's not possible. You are one person and you have interests that cross both boundaries.

I see no reason to hide or segment yourself in any respect. After all, people don't want to do business with businesses so much as they want to do business with people and preferably people they know and trust. The way that best happens is by letting them see you for who you are, with all your warts. It's okay for them to know you have a family, or that you like scuba-diving, or that you play Texas Hold 'em on Facebook. Heck, maybe they do as well, and that can become a crucial point of connection that leads to a business relationship being built.

(Of course, you understand my philosophy is anchored in the notion that you should never post anything online you don't want your mother to see, so I play it safe.)

The Digital Handshake - Interview with Paul Chaney (Part 3)

This is the third of a four part interview with Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake which officially launched on September 22.

You say "the Internet is more about connections and less about destinations." Can you translate that into a couple of tips for how entrepreneurs can create an experience to engage and connect with their visitors/readers/prospects that may or may not involved driving them to a website?

What I mean by that is that the destination era of the web is over, to quote Steve Rubel. The idea that your website serves as the be-all/end-all of everything that's needed for a consumer to know about you or your business is antiquated. It's all about being where people are, and tying that presence back to your website. I tell people to make your website a "hub," not a silo; a hub that connects them everywhere else you have a presence online.

A great example (though a bit outlandish) is what Mars did with their Skittles.com website. Rather than have the typical CPG's site, they made the site nothing more than a widget that sat in the upper left-hand corner of the browser. Click a link to "chatter" and you were taken to a Twitter search for the word "Skittles." Click "media" and you were taken either to their YouTube or Flickr channels. Click "friends" and you went to the Facebook Fan Page.

The Digital Handshake - Interview with Paul Chaney (Part 2)

This is the second of a four part interview with Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake which officially launched on September 22. The following two questions were contributed by Debra Marrs and Laurie Sheppard when I put out a call for reader questions.

1. [Submitted by Debra Marrs] I've noticed myself "tuning out" the barrage of messages, especially email blasts...I see people overexposing their target audiences (including current clients) with just too much stuff. Given the overexposure and information overload, what are your suggestions for a percentage mix of content, conversation, and other strategies for keeping your followers interested in your messages?

I wish I had a good answer for that. I think I tend to be one who “overexposes” my community to my messages. If I were to formulate a strategy, it would look something like this:

a.   Tweet four to six times per day using a mix of conversation, links to resources and broadcast messages.

The Digital Handshake - Interview with Paul Chaney (Part 1)

This is the first of a four part interview with Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake which officially launches today. Paul and I have known each other since 2004, when I first started blogging (5 years next week). Paul Chaney is one of those guys you just have to know. He is smart, generous with his knowledge, time and help, and is quite humble as well.

Paul has been on the forefront of new thinking about blogging and social media and has now published The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media. I asked if I could publish a blog interview and Paul graciously agreed.I asked 8 questions, some contributed by readers at Biz Tips Blog. I've split the interview into four parts since there's a lot of juicy info in Paul's answers.

Let the interview begin...

1.    I'll start with the obvious question…there are a plethora of books on the market now about social media marketing. What inspired you to add your voice to the mix with The Digital Handshake and what's the primary take-way you want readers to get?

You're absolutely right about the number of social media books glutting the market now. "Plethora" is an appropriate term. I'm going to be completely honest with my answer too. I had this book in me and it had to get out. I pitched it to Wiley , who was receptive to a proposal. I put it together and they decided to run with it.

The big question is "why." I believe Wiley wants to own this space. I can count a minimum of a half dozen social media marketing books that they've commissioned in the past year. And that's probably a conservative number.

To answer your question in a way that's it will benefit readers. This book is a combination of strategy and tactics, very much on the order of David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR. (Now, I'm by no means suggesting it is as well written as David's, but has that same practical focus.)

So what, you might say, so do any number of others. To that I respond you are absolutely correct. The one thing then that separates this book from the pack is that I wrote it. Don't get me wrong. I'm not being pompous in making that assertion. It's just that this book contains everything I believe about social media. It is a reflection of my philosophy, ethics and approach to using social media for marketing.

You know, there is one more thing that makes this book different. While it does reflect my own approach, it also reflects the voices of so many other social media marketers. I interviewed a number of them and share their thoughts, ideas and opinions pretty much just as they rendered them. In that respect, this book is a collaboration of some of the leading voices in the industry.

This book is written not for the social media "navel gazers," but for those still on the outside looking in. It is an overview of the medium, and very much an introduction to it. One person called it a "field guide." I like that term.

2.    Because you and I connected first through blogging, in 2004, I have to ask this…what role do you see for blogging in the near and long term? Is blogging dead or does it still have a place in social marketing?

Blogging is not dead, nor will it soon be. As the forerunner to the social media "movement," it has found its place as more of a long-form medium. At least, that's what the more traditional form of blogging has become. Other forms have evolved as well - micro-blogging and lifestreaming for example. In fact, lifestreaming is sort of what blogging was at the time you and I started. We talked about everything in our blog. It was our "lifestream" because there was nothing else out there for us to use.

Now, you've got apps like Posterous, Twitter and Tumblr to take some of the strain of the blog so it can contain more thorough, well-researched, more fully fleshed out copy.

Tomorrow: how to manage the message overload and how to generate client leads with social media.

Read Paul Chaney's blog The Social Media Handyman, join The Digital Handshake Fan page, and follow Paul on twitter.

Julia Child Cooks Up a Blog Post (and free teleseminar)

This is very last minute. I just set up a free teleseminar with Julia Child aka Christina Hills, as a preview and training call for the Website Creation Workshop.

I've known Christina Hills for many years and have attended many of her teleseminars. She is a very thorough teacher and always delivers value. I chose to host this preview call as a gift to you, so you can learn what you need to know in order to make an informed decision about what's required to create websites and blogs -- this is especially important if you're a do-it-yourselfer.

You may wonder why I'm hosting a call about using Wordpress. "Aren't you a total TypePad fanatic, Denise?" you may ask.

Yes, I use and love TypePad for my blogs. AND, I use wordpress for other sites as well. And, it's important to give you all the options so you can decide what's BEST FOR YOU.

I invite you to join me on Monday, September 14 for this free, informative teleseminar with Christina Hills, a master tech teacher...but first, watch this hysterical video of "Julia Child" cooking up a blog post so you can get a sense of Christina Hills' teaching style...

The Website Creation Workshop preview call is free and no registration is required. Just show up. You can get the dial-in details and the handout here.

Fast Company Interview on Business Blogging - I finally hit the big time!

Ha! I'm just kidding of course, and, I do want to share with you a link to an interview I did last month with my colleague and friend Rich Brooks of flyte new media. Rich writes a column for Fastcompany.com. He and I started blogging within a couple of months of each other way back in 2004.

Rich asked me about business blogging, why businesses should blog, about my blogging activities and a few ways to promote your blog. I always enjoy talking with Rich and I recommend you check out his excellent flyte blog and follow Rich Brooks on twitter as well.

Here's the article: Building a Better Blog with Denise Wakeman.

Let me know what you think!

Online Radio Interviews with Denise Wakeman (replay links)

If you were not able to attend the live interviews I did last week on Twitter Talk Radio and this week on Your Partner in Success, here are links so you can catch up!

Twitter Talk Radio with host Angie A. Swartz Also available on iTunes.

Your Partner In Success with host Denise Griffitts

How to Use Your Blog To Develop Your Online Brand

Had a great conversation with Barbara Roemer who hosts Success Mastery Radio on Blog Talk Radio. Our topic was how to use your blog to develop (and manage) your online brand.

I discussed why I believe Visibility = Opportunity and why you, as a professional, need to create a brand, or personae, to differentiate yourself from your competitors. We talked about how to monitor your online brand, how to extend your visibility online (what do you think my suggestion was???), and 5+ tactics you can use to create massive visibility online.

Related Posts:

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How to Dominate the Search Results for Your Name
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Blogger Jeff Hopeck Interviewed by Denise Wakeman - video

Gotta love the Internet, blogging, social media and my dentist, Dr. Ramsey Amin. Today I met a fellow blogger at a micro tweet up - just the two of us at a popular cafe near my home office. Jeff Hopeck is the brother-in-law of my dentist who connected us through blogging and twitter. The last couple of times I got my teeth cleaned and checked, Dr. Amin was telling me how his brother-in-law blogged and that I should look him up.

Can't remember the sequence of events, but through blogging and twitter we chit-chatted a bit. This week Jeff is in town from Atlanta so we met up for a coffee. We talked blogging and social marketing for nearly 2 hours!

Jeff Hopeck is a former secret service veteran, publisher of HealthyHabitsBlog, a speaker, fitness coach and author of a brand new book Stop Killing Yourself. Pretty dramatic title. It's all about learning to understand how to read food labels so you can make better, healthier choices when dining out, grocery shopping and cooking at home. Before we parted company, I asked Jeff to share a tip for bloggers in a quick video interview...