In an age where social media and Internet use continue to grow at blinding rates, many businesses are asking, “Should we start a blog?” It is no surprise that blogs have become more and more popular. In the last two years alone, RSS feed subscriptions have increased from 5% to 7%. (1). Not only that, but blogs are now used by 24% of Internet users, which is up from 13% in 2005, a number which is said to be continuously on the rise.

Prior to logging on and creating your business’ online journal, there are a few things to consider. This is especially true if you are looking to appeal to your customers and generate a good flow of online traffic. Here are some tips, blogging best practices, if you will, that will help you to create a strong foundation for your blog and build buzz for your business.

Be relevant:
Make sure the content ties into your business. The last thing anyone who follows your company wants to read about are topics that are unrelated to your business and its workings.

Find your voice/message:
Do not try and be someone you are not; use your personality, but remain professional. And, when choosing content, be brief and to the point, and include visuals when necessary.

Blog regularly:
In order to keep visitors coming back, it is important to blog regularly. That does not mean you need to blog everyday, which could become exhausting. Blog two to three times per week. An even better idea is to create a blogging schedule by blogging on the same days each week. Your blog’s update frequency will play a major role in the audience following.

Allow for comments:
Blogging is a conversation; it is meant to be two-sided. Be sure to enable comments on your blog. And, if you are worried about spam comments or negative ones, most blog platforms have built-in controls to help you to prevent spam and monitor your comments.

Optimize for search engines:
So, you want to increase traffic? Use relevant keywords in your post titles; link throughout the post when necessary; and write about what your target market will be searching for… use search-friendly keywords.

Get social:
Use social networks, when appropriate to market your blog. Sites like Twitter and Facebook can help to increase traffic flow. Also, link up with other blogs and sites in the same industry as your business. This helps to increase the credibility of your blog.

What’s the next step? Begin to research topics, join social networks and start blogging. The first step in marketing your blog is to start one.

(1) Ketchum and USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center

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Even if you live in an underground lair, you have at least heard of Facebook.  Not only are your favorite sports team and primetime show asking for a fan request, but so are your local grocer, your dentist and your financial advisor.  Whereas Facebook began as a way to connect students, Facebook is now literally connecting the world, with no industry stone left unturned.

Facebook is not for young college students anymore as that signature blue box now shines light upon the faces of a much wider audience.  Today, Facebook is a powerful presence that provides marketing opportunities galore.  As the average age of the Facebook community continues to rise, so do the number of companies, both B2C and B2B, making Facebook an integral and newer element of their marketing plan.

And it is costing them, essentially nothing.  With the exception of pay-per-click and pay-per-impression ads, Facebook is friendly to sales and marketing budgets and requires only time, and perhaps a little bit of creativity and finesse.

So how do you cater for a party of 250 million Facebook users?  You don’t.  Instead, be smart in how you join the world of Facebook and make the right connections, seek out your appropriate audiences, and mingle.  Challenge.  Flirt.  Push.  Pull.  And join the conversation that may now be going on without you.

First, get started and create a Facebook Page.  It’s so easy a caveman can do it.

Your page will be the home base of your Facebook marketing presence.  Through it, Facebook users can become your fan.  When they do, your name and logo will appear on their profile page and you will be in their feed, visible to everyone in their networks.  You will be viral, in a good way.  Don’t fight it.

Then, explore other marketing uses of Facebook:

• Promote your events and occasions.  Facebook evites are a cake walk.  If you are a law firm, invite young law talent to your recruitment event…if you are a restaurant, promote your happy hour specials.

• Engage your audience with contests and polls.  Let your audiences interact with you.  Ask them questions, and listen to their responses.  Build a game for them to play with you online.  If they feel you are allowing them to impact your decisions as a company or organization, they will continue to share how they feel with you.

• Create Discussion Boards to solicit user feedback and generate brainstorms.

• Keep it exciting and new.  Make sure your Facebook page is equipped with fresh photos, videos and updates.  Would you go to CNN.com or STLToday.com if the information never changed?

• Sync up your Twitter updates with your Facebook account.  Take advantage of one data entry point so you still have time to stop and smell the flowers from time to time.  Need to learn more about Twitter?… read our article.

• Integrate Facebook with your web site.  Inspire your existing site visitors to become a fan of your organization on Facebook.  Perhaps let them see a different side or you, or simply use Facebook to push out information that they would otherwise have to seek out themselves on your site.  Add Facebook Share links on your site as well to help your fans talk to their friends about you.

• Implement the Fan Box widget on your website to gain more fans and share your Facebook updates.  This implementation requires pasting only 4 lines of code.

• Or add a Comment Box to your site, allowing Facebook users on your site to comment on your content, post those comments to their profiles, and share them with their friends on Facebook.  Kick up your feet and let your fans promote you.

• Try out paid social ads.  Target your ads to your audience.  Determine age, gender, geographic, interests, marital status, etc.  Cast your net as small, or as big as you would like and pay only for performance.

• Capture your vanity URL.  Make your Facebook page easily accessible: http://facebook.com/yourcompanynamehere.

• Set up Facebook Insights to track your fans and their activity on your page.  Understand who is in your Facebook network and how often they are checking out your page.  Explore metrics of gender & age, page views, weekly trending, etc.

• And be sure to talk.  That’s right, get out there.  Converse.  Give them something to talk about.  Be clever.  Be personable.  Be professional.  Spell everything right.

• Finally, reap search engine optimization (SEO) benefits.  Facebook pages have proven to rank very highly in Google search results, so enjoy the boost of your SEO rankings.

With that, you are off!  See you on Facebook. (Visit Paradigm’s fan page on Facebook!)

So you now have your Facebook page set up and have built a nice community of close-knit friends, some family, surprising blasts from the past and maybe a few retail stores and restaurants.  And you are feeling good and established, only to learn that…

NOW EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT TWITTER!
Both in under and over 140 characters, Twitter is popping up everywhere. Do you ever feel that by the time you are caught up, everyone is on to the next best thing?

[For the uninitiated:  Twitter is a social microblogging utility (turned marketing vehicle) that aims to keep people connected in real-time.   Twitter consists of microbloggers meaning they can message, or “tweet” as many times as they like, but they must stay within 140 characters.  In Twitter, be brief, or cut off.]

Here is some advice to help you get started, grow and ultimately succeed on Twitter:

STEP ONE: Create your Account
1.    Include a bio.  Twitter behavior has shown that people are 6x more likely to follow you if you disclose a few interesting things about yourself.
2.    Include a company logo or profile image.  Show the Twitter world who you are!  Don’t be caught as the sad brown shape with the two blue circles in it.  Yawn.  Be sure to personalize your account, whether you are creating a branded business account or a personal one.
3.    Include a link.  Like a bio, here too people are 6x more likely to follow you.  Give them a call to action, a path and let them seek out more about you.  Otherwise, you are saying you are happy to be a dead end.
4.    Identify yourself.  Are you the CEO of a major company?  The “Official President of the Terrance and Philip Fan Club?”  Share it.

STEP TWO: Build your World
1.    Become a follower. (who ever thought that would be good advice?)  In order to entice more people to follow you, you too must be willing to follow.  Most likely, unless you are a celebrity, you won’t naturally have tons of people following you.  Interestingly, even in the world of celebrity, those that choose to follow have much greater success than those that don’t.  Following demonstrates that you are open for conversation- and isn’t that what Twitter is all about?
2.    Follow top users.  Perhaps some people are just overwhelmingly interesting.  Or maybe they are people of influence who are inaccessible otherwise.  Either way, whether it be Barack Obama or Lance Armstrong, you may enjoy following top users, and you may learn the secrets for what it takes to be followed in the process.  In addition, following the followed opens you up to their large network of followers.  And it is possible they may even choose to follow you.
3.    Import contacts from existing email accounts.  Twitter was thoughtful.  They know the pain and suffering that results from having to rebuild a new community every time you “move” within the social media world.  To assist with this, Twitter allows you to search your existing Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and MSN accounts to find contacts that already have a Twitter account. Now tell Twitter thank you.
4.    Share your new Twitter account.  Promote your new Twitter world on your web site and business cards, and in your email marketing and elevator pitch.  Tell your Facebook, Digg, Myspace networks that you are now tweeting.  You didn’t build a presence on those powerful online communities for nothing.

STEP THREE: Go!
1.    Go ahead, get out there.  And remember Rome wasn’t built in a day. Start talking.  Tweet.
2.    Interact.  Remember that Twitter is not a broadcast and that you are not on a megaphone on the top of the tallest mountain.  Twitter is  a discussion, a conversation.  Discuss.  Converse.
3.    Avoid TMI.  There is a fine line between getting personal and getting creepy.   No offense, but unless you are a celebrity, no one wants to know your dirt.  Be professional. Some occasional cunning randomness doesn’t hurt, but even with that, moderation is key.
4.    Be interesting. Be engaging.  Be relevant.  Be clever.  Be real.  Talk about news, events and awesomely random facts. Talk about something cool you discovered at work–or at play.  Respond to others.  Talk about something you purchased and love.  Talk about something you purchased and hate (you never know who just may find you). Share links–use a tiny URL to keep you under 140 characters.  Be a resource.
5.    Be active and consistent.  A strong constant presence is just that– strong, constant and present.  Be a reliable part of the online conversation.  Studies show that the Tweet best practice is somewhere between 15-25 tweets a day.   This is doable, while still allowing for survival essentials like sleeping, eating and bathing.  Keep in mind there is also a power in limiting how much you tweet, as people often listen when the silent guy finally speaks.
6.    Don’t over-self promote.  This is your warning: it will be obvious, you will annoy people and they will stop following you.
7.    Mobilize.  Because most people are not strapped to a computer all day, many tweet on their mobile device.  Shaq is doing it– on the bench during games.    You never know when you will have something to say.

Using Twitter Specifically for Business?
There are some special pointers just for you:

1.    Create a branded business account.  This account differs from the personal John Smith, CEO of Company X account.  This account is traditionally more formal, but it still allows you to connect with people as a brand.
2.    Search your brand name and your keywords.  See what people are saying about you and your industry.  Learn if they are saying anything at all.  Save the good (can you say testimonials?) and repair the bad (have customer service respond and assist, or better yet respond and assist yourself.)
3.    Offer value. Announce sales and deals.  New Products and trends.  Talk about contests and free giveaways.  Promote events.  Share breaking news and “How to’s.”
4.    Don’t fear the Twitter.  With the influx of all the social media, many companies are nervous.  Thoughts like “How do I know what my employees are saying?” and “What if my brand is poorly communicated?” are swirling about.  Twitter works in real-time, meaning no time for content approval.  If you plan to add Twitter to your marketing mix, it is time for your employees to prove that they can practice good judgment, extend your brand, and promote your company through Twitter.  Otherwise, concern yourself instead with the stack of faxes that is probably waiting on your desk.

And finally, while you are at it, follow us!

New media-heads have been busy.  Long hours have been spent polishing our crystal balls, and developing our (un)tried and true predictions for the implications of Social Media for 2009.  That being said, feast your eyes on our 2009 Social Media forecast:

1.  Consumer satisfaction / customer service are absolute musts!
Be good to your clients & customers, or they will dislike you, and defame on Youtube, Facebook, & Twitter, to name a few accessible soapboxes.

2.  Companies hire “Community Managers.”
The power of social media has actually produced a new occupational trade.  Unemployed?  Want to turn consumer frowns upside down?  Companies that struggle with Rule #1 are finding a growing need to temper moods of unsatisfied customers, with either the goal to keep them loyal – or simply keep them quiet.  Community managers also serve to facilitate active communications with the companies’ biggest fans, fostering residual applause and flattery, without the PR agency price tag.

3. Yes, we are on the air…
We are going to see everything as it happens, in real-time through a variety of media sources/ networks.  Oh yes, we will see the good, the bad and everything else – with little to buffer us from our connected, streaming worlds.  Have kids?  “Earmuffs!”

4. Do you MOSOSO?
Mobile Social Software will rush in full-force, and like everything else,  join the list of things “we don’t know how we ever lived without.”

5.  All aboard the Social Media train!
Tightened budgets will not thwart marketing activity in 2009.  Instead, 2009 will be full of smarter marketing.  Investing in “community” is free, and proving more effective than even the costliest of media.  A Social Media presence takes time and these communities are not built overnight.  Good thing you hired your community manager yesterday.  Even the B2B’s will come out to play, producing private online networks.  There, they can personally connect with and serve their clients, with both parties taking a collaborative dip in the community pool.

6.  Social Capital is the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
With over 600,000 Facebook users joining daily, and over 3 million “tweets” on Twitter a day…much of the Internet has been occupied by social media conversation.   Social Capital is the power of one’s social network in referring business. To gain social capital, you must link to, and develop relationships with others that are also well connected.  In the same way blogs changed our search results in the last couple years, social media is doing the same.

7.  Some fear becoming white noise.
With everyone networking and talking online, (including dogs – http://apps.facebook.com/dogbook/) … at what point will it be too much?  With the exponential growth of this online world, overpopulation and limited resources are both looming threats.  You may be wondering, “If I speak, will anyone hear me?”  This is why managing your presence closely and creatively is of growing importance.

So get ready for Social Media in 2009 – everybody and their brother!

A year full of online blabbing, some love, some slander, corporate damage control, better customer service, real reality TV, increased driving distractions, cost-effectiveness, smarter marketing, a new way to tackle SEO, weird dog owners talking through their pets, and the challenge to perpetually evolve and reinvent ourselves within the ever-changing new media landscape.

Video may have killed the radio star but it single-handedly revolutionized the Internet.

Since October of 2008, 13.5 billion videos have been viewed online. This is on the rise 45% from one year ago and this number is only predicted to increase.

So why are you loving the video? It’s entertaining but more importantly, information is presented to you. Which means you just sit back, relax and absorb.

In a society where over night ce“web”rities are born thanks to sites like YouTube and others, it is no shock that you can access almost every TV show or breaking story instantly via an online video. They are available whenever you want to watch but the greatest part is that you can choose from literally millions of videos. How’s that for personalization?

And who loves it the most when the audience just shows up? Advertisers. According to eMarketer, 2009 will see a 50% increase in online video ad dollars.

But online video is more than advertising budgets and laughing at YouTube. Video is a win-win for our clients both in message quality and usage tracking. It is becoming increasingly affordable and accessible to create and add video to your site. Tracking video interaction is made simple with metrics so it’s no wonder everyone is flocking to add video to their site.

A relatively new concept in the online world is video SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Using video SEO, videos themselves are beginning to appear in organic search engine rankings. Quality video beefs up site content to improve your search engine ranking results. Thus, bringing new eyes and opportunities to your site.

Video SEO is predicted to be a $3 billion dollar business by 2010. Besides adding media-rich content to your site, videos are often shared and forwarded quickly. This exchange can grow the popularity of your site over night. And to augment video success, it is important to have a page on the site describing the video to optimize keyphrases. As indexing video content continues to improve, it is evident just how important video is becoming to increase your online exposure.

The power of video is all around us. Online video influenced voters in the latest presidential election and it will continue to be the focus of semantic web technologies. Video gives us a front row seat to the happenings around the world. This is why Paradigm truly believes that if you stream it, they will come.