Turning blogging into a digital business - advice from Tanya Burr

Today's Fabulous magazine has an interesting Q&A with fashion and beauty video blogger, or vlogger - Tanya Burr. She advises...

• Upload at least once a week
• No magic formula for success. But make content as engaging as possible and talk about stuff you would want to watch or read yourself. 'If I don't think I'd read a post, I start again," she told Fabulous.
• Put some of your own life into it. She reports that her channel took off once she posted about what she does day to day, rather than just beauty tutorials. Personal content makes people feel like they're getting to know you.
• Read feeback.
• In an earlier interview on Lola and Grace http://www.lolaandgrace.com/blog/fashion/tanya-burr-interview/ she said her favourite quote is 'just do you'. This is probably the secret of her vlog's success. It's Tanya being herself - and people love it. She has millions of hits on her youtube channel. 
• Tanya pushes out her weekly videos from her social channels as well as appearing in other Youtube vlogger clips. 
• The vlogs have a friendly, virtual best-friend style - a virtual companion in your bedroom as you watch the clips on your ipad or phone. They are informal and chatty and Tanya lures you into wanting to sample the products she's testing out on herself. A winning formula. 
• Finally, she's created real-world products as a spin off from the Vlog. Tanya has a range of lip glosses and nail varnish on sale in Superdrug. 

Tanya Burr's vlog on Youtube


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How customer questions can help you find blogging and content ideas

If you run a business you'll be used to lots of questions from existing and potential customers. To help you find great content for your website and blogs, start with a list of these - an extensive list of these. Give a blank sheet of paper to everybody that works in your business and ask them to jot down the questions customers frequently ask them. Your secretary, admin and reception team will be key players in this exercise. They talk to customers and know what troubles them so don't dismiss their knowledge because it can be crucial for steering you towards finding great content.

Trawl through any customer emails, customer service contact and approaches from potential new customers. In there, will be more clues about what information and advice they are seeking. There was a reason they approached you - because they couldn't find what they need elsewhere. Turn detective and make an exhaustive list of these 'wants'.

The aim is to delve deep and work out what problems your customers face. Each time they visit your website, or use your business, they are coming to you with a problem and unfulfilled needs. The questions they ask, especially when they are thinking about working with you, are clues about what these needs are.

Once you have a list of their needs and wants, their worries and fears and their troubles - you can start to help. You can start to provide tips, advice and solutions through your content and ultimately through the product or service you are selling.

If you can, sit down and talk with customers. Get inside their head and work out what needs they have, what they want to find out about. Again, all good potential subject matter for content.

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Using Google + for your business

Julie Bishop, www.jobhopjulie.co.uk and @jobhopjulie recently spoke to the Women in Rural Enterprise (WIRE) Norwich branch about how you can use Google + in business.

"Google + is essential for business," said Julie. "It is crucial firstly for SEO because when you put something on Google + it is indexed immediately and searched by Google.

"If you want to be on the first page of a Google search you need to be on Google +."

Google + allows you to claim authorship of content you put on the web and will pull up your content in a search with your photograph alongside. Your profile helps Google ensure you are found and puts a face to every bit of your content.

Google + on air hangouts are also indexed and searched immediately and go straight to Youtube - all helping your SEO.

It's like a mini blog where you can tag others into the conversation and drive traffic to your website. What you then need to look at is once you get them to your website how do you convert them. Apparently, sites with regularly updated blogs have 55% more visitors.

However, one delegate at the meeting was concerned about what to upload as new content. "The thing I struggle with is putting up content. I have no idea what to put about myself that I think people might be interested in," she said.

You must upload fresh vibrant content, new content or Google will not drive traffic to you. Before you start using Google +, or any social media for that matter, you have to plan out where you are going with your business and what you want to achieve with social media.

"You could perhaps give something free away on your site in return for their email. Keep thinking about how you will convert somebody who is visiting your site. One way is by collecting emails and building up communication with them. You want to reach them way before the decision to buy."

When they come to your site try to work out what your customer is thinking and the kind of things they might put into Google to search. What is your customer's pain - and you can offer some advice and solutions in your content. They can come to your content and find that you have the solution.

Extra tips
Twitter tip - Julie, who also runs courses on Twitter for business, suggested that businesses could put out eight tweets per hour - four driving to the website and four engaging with customers.

This sounded rather a lot to my mind and indeed I have seen some research that shows that twittering too much can actually put customers off.

Blogging tip - apparently Photopin has lots of free images you can use on your blog in return for a credit.


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Seven reasons why you should blog

Blogging can bring business benefits and is an essential online marketing tool. Still not convinced? Here are seven reasons why you should blog....

1. It adds fresh content to your website which pushes you up the search engines. Every time you update your blog - as long as it is an embedded part of your website - Google search engine considers it as new content. Google gives search preference to sites that have fresh and updated content and they are given a higher page rank.

2. It helps build your authority and demonstrates your expertise. Whatever it is you do well, blog about it and you will gradually become a go-to expert in your field.

3. It can help bring people to your website and offer them valuable and useful information. It's a great way to demonstrate your experience or tell people about the benefits of your product or service.

4. It encourages a dialogue with your readers. Customers can comment and interact with you and it provides an immediate feedback.

5. It transforms you into your own mini publisher. Instead of relying on traditional media to spread the word about your company or organisation, you can become your own publisher. You can decide what you want to say and how you want to say it - and go back and edit it later if you want to make changes. It gives you a platform to spread news about your company.

6. It helps you stand out from your competitors. There may be millions of blogs on the web, but it is unlikely there will be many quality, niche blogs in your sector. Writing a high-quality blog gives you the edge over your competitors because it makes you seem more authoritative. It also allows you to pass on in-depth information about your product or service.

7. It is a cheap way to spread the word about your company. Once you have set up your blog the only cost is your time.


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How to spot bad writing: tips for content, features and blogs

Whatever you are writing, here are a few simple tips that will make it easier to read.

1. Don't overuse capital letters. Poor writing uses too many capital letters. Given the mildest excuse this writer will use caps for Job Titles (Head of Molecular Biology at the Department of Molecular Biology) and descriptions of things that seem important (Consumer Marketing Strategy). Only use capitals when you absolutely have to.
2. Avoid overuse of exclamation marks!!!! The most obvious sign of poor or juvenile writing. School kids use this a lot in their homework and bad writers use it a lot in their copy. They think it's a way of grabbing attention!!!!!! Only use when you absolutely have to and they will have more impact. Let the words grab attention not the punctuation.
3. Keep sentences short. Once you write more than 25 words or so without a full stop, it becomes almost impossible to read. Break down long sentences into punchier, shorter ones.
4. Use consistent typefaces. Stick to just a couple of typefaces rather than making your blog post or document a riot of colour and typeface. It just looks tacky and it undermines your authority.
5. Avoid more than 10 words across a column. Again, any longer than this and it becomes a challenge to read. If you want longer columns, make the spacing between the lines bigger.
6. Avoid 'really' and 'very'. These are redundant words, which means you can usually take them out of the sentence without really making very much difference to the meaning. Take them out and the copy will seem really tighter and very easy to read. 

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Why the future for journalists is...content marketing.

Maureen Rice, editorial director at Cedar Communications spoke at a Guild of Health Writers event last night.

The event called 'Broaden your Horizons' was designed to help health journalists diversify and find new income streams in the digital age.

Maureen, an esteemed and experienced former editor of high profile national women's magazines, spoke about content marketing. She told how she had embraced the digital age and was working harder than ever before - and enjoying it more.

'Content is where it's at, where the budgets are, where the work is and where there is a massive influx of high-level talent,' she said.

The content revolution has seen brands become media owners. Storytelling is the best way to build communities and a huge chunk of brand's budgets, on average a third, is now directed to content marketing.

'As far as journalists are concerned the only way you can get paid for your content is if it's really good. It's about quality, quality, quality,' she said.

And a tip: if you are looking for work in this industry never refer to companies like Cedar as 'contract publishers' - they are now in the business of content marketing.

'Don't pitch me a feature, think about lots of audiences and multi platforms: print, online, blogs, live tweets, vine' she said. 'In content marketing customers don't pay for content, brands do'.

Finally, she said that journalists now need to think strategically and look at the bigger picture. When pitching they need to be aware of social trends and two major ones are obesity and diabetes - trends which most big brands are addressing.

'Content marketing is a leveller. It's not about you, it's not about egos,' she said. 'The future is an exciting one and the industry is attracting the best talent and the biggest budgets.'

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How to come up with ideas for blog posts

I am a content consultant for many companies who need to find fresh content for weekly, or even twice-weekly, blog posts. They find it a challenge to create new, compelling content week in, week out. So I'm working on some techniques to help.

• Quantity not quality at the ideas stage. Rather than trying to agonise over what would make a great blog post, force yourself to come up with 20 ideas every day. These can be anything you can think of. Write the numbers one to 20 in a book and aim to put an idea next to each. Do this every day. Don't filter the ideas yet, just fill up the list. This starts a habit of looking around constantly for inspiration as you know you have to complete this list every day. If 20 is too challenging make the list just 10.
• When you need a blog post trawl through your lists and you are bound to find at least one that will work - you'll have 140 ideas in just one week with this method.
• Create a list post: these are popular because they are quick and easy to read. Top 50 tips for great content; top 10 best websites for content; etc.
• Brainstorm for all the questions that a visitor to your website might have lingering in their mind as they are browsing. The blog posts can answer these. For example, if you run a coaching website - they might be coming to your site thinking 'how do I organise my life' 'how can I get a better work life balance' - all those questions can lead to blog posts. If there are several answers to the question, then each of these can make a blog post in their own right.
• Keep an eye on news stories linked to your industry. Can you comment, enlighten further or simply let your web visitors know about it.
• Think time of the year - add a seasonal blog post that's related to your business: back to school; autumn; January resolutions; nights getting darker, etc.
• Listen to what your customers, staff and colleagues are grumbling about. If you have any kind of answer or just want to discuss the grumble then it would make a great blog post. Keep a notebook full of customer comments, grumbles and frequently asked questions - and use the blog to address these in a positive way.
• Spin a hot topic into multiple posts. If there's an important topic that you know your readers are interested in write about it from different standpoints. If your readers are interested in painting their kitchen, for example, blog posts could be: a beginner's guide to painting your kitchen; how to prepare your kitchen for painting; the top 10 best painted kitchens ever, a video on how to paint your kitchen; the best tools for painting your kitchen. Spin one topic into many blog posts. As a tip here's some angles: beginner's guide; top 10; worst ever and mistakes; instructional video; how the experts do it; new technology and gadgets for the job; celebrity versions, reviewing products needed, problem solving, best way to, etc.
• Breaking news in your industry. This is a great way to create compelling content. You are well placed to know what's the latest, hottest topic in your news. So scan the trade press in your industry for ideas.This also positions you as an authority figure in the eyes of your readers.
• Revisit previous blog posts and go into more detail. Looking at the subject matter covered in this blog post, for example, I could definitely go through and pick out a topic that could be looked at in more detail in its own post. Perhaps 'How to blog about news stories in your industry' or 'How touse customer comments as inspiration for great blog post.
  
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