Unloading On Compendium Blogware

Image via CrunchBase

There is a small buzz going around about a recent blog post by Jeb Banner at SmallBox (a local website design firm) about some of the techniques and tools implemented by local blogging giant, Compendium Blogware. In his post, The Problem with Compendium Blogware, Jeb talks about the merits of the Compendium system and whether or not Google will be punishing Compendium in the long run because of a tweek in their algorithm.

To be completely honest with you, as a small business owner, I think the bigger problem is the fact that Compendium is still selling and overtly offering their service to small businesses that cannot afford a $6,000 blogging tool that they can get for free on WordPress. I don’t want to debate the merits of a tool that is better or worst than WordPress. I don’t want to debate whether or not Compendium has better functions and offerings than another free blogging platform out there.The simple fact is that Compendium is targeting the wrong consumer group for this product.

I will be the first to say that I don’t care about the backend programming merits of one blogging platform over the other (no offense Jeb and Chris). I can tell you first hand and from experience that WordPress works for me. Plain and simple.

I have a corporate blog we just started on our company website Brandswag (using wordpress) and I have the personal blog that you are reading now. Why would I spend $6,000 dollars, which is 10% of my overall revenue, to buy a tool that is free online? I just haven’t seen the value yet. I get great search results on my blog from using the WordPress platform and I can actually tell you the amount of money I have made because of my search rankings and because of my blogging. Why? Because I measure it.

I can understand a corporation using Compendium. Heck, I will refer clients to Compendium if they have the revenue to support the kind of investment the tool costs and if they fully understand the strategy behind blogging. Most small business owners simply should not invest 10-20% of their revenue into a tool when they do not understand the concepts, the fundamentals.

Start small and graduate big.

Start with a WordPress site and get the hang of blogging. Once you understand the value of content and you realize a return on investment make the switch (if you want).

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Building a Pre-Meet Platform

I was browsing the many, many pages of social media blogs this morning and found a post by Steve Woodruff. His blog StickyFigure has some great content and his post, The Personal ROI of Social Media is one of those posts. I am going to borrow a concept from his post and expand upon it: the pre-meeting.

From Steve’s post:

“Through bloggging and Twittering, I have “pre-met” a vast array of people who have shared interests in marketing, branding, social media, pharma, and other aspects of life. By having initial contact in the safe zone of social media, a shared sympathy has been built up, irrespective of any borders of geography, race, background, and political leanings.”

I thought to myself… hmm… It is always good to try and fit a visual description of an idea in order to help people remember the concept. If you are using social media as a platform to build a business network that far surpasses  anything in your location.. you are on the right track.

Social media allows you to pre-meet thousands upon thousands of people and then decide whether you want to take that relationship to the next level and meet at a conference or by other means. You could almost think of it as a pre-screener. Ehh, I would rather not meet them in person. Blah.

I encourage everyone venturing into the social media world to pre-meet and extend a hand to the people you find interesting in the online environment. If you have a location based social network (like Smaller Indiana in Indianapolis) it is important to have these offline meetings to further strengthen your online network.

Build the pre-meeting platform and you will flourish. Just remember to take it offline sometimes too.

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Social Media: If I Want It I’ll Buy It. Don’t Sell Me.

Image by websuccessdiva via Flickr

Truth be told.. I am getting immersed in Lisa Hoffman’s blog over at New Media Lisa. She has been KILLING it the past few weeks. She wrote a post recently called Social Media Isn’t About the Selling Cycle – It’s About the Buying Cycle. The post is about the concept of shifting the focus on an individual from a selling cycle to a buying cycle. From her post:

“More than ever before, people are expecting and demanding exactly what they want in every facet of their lives. What does this say about the typical hyper focus on the selling cycle? And what would happen if we turned the telescope around and considered the buying cycle instead?”

I don’t know about you but (as a sales generator) it is kind of nerve racking to shift from a selling cycle to a buying cycle. Does that mean I can’t actively sell? Good God… and no it doesn’t.

Don’t get me wrong…there is some romantic notion behind the thought of creating a meaningful relationship and allowing the buyer to find you in the process but how do you plan and measure for that? Don’t you need to balance between a selling and buying cycle when using social media marketing as part of your strategy?

There is only one problem between a relationship building sales approach when you are building a company: bringing sales in initially. There is a long and short tail approach to selling. Social media is the long tail.

It takes time to build up relationships and create the trust factor that allows people to come to you. That is the whole idea isn’t it? So work towards building the buying cycle to the point where you are the qualified destination for people searching for a solution. Work your butt off to create that special point where selling becomes secondary..

So the answer?

Building the Trust Factor: blogging, testimonials, social media, writing articles.. etc. etc. etc. communicating!

Building a Company: off-line networking, creating relationships in your community, traditional marketing

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They Don’t Read Your Blog. Do Something About It.

Okay. This blew me away.

According to Minds Eye Web Design: 95% of web users DO NOT read 80%. (via ux booth)

Now.. there isn’t any reporting backing up the numbers of 95 and 80 (from what I could find) but I would like to think Minds Eye was either being dramatic to generate emotion or they actually surveyed for the info. I don’t know about you but I get emotional when I hear that 95% is only reading 20% of my content.

So how do we change? How do we create content that is going to take the 80% to 60% and eventually to 30% and then to 20%? Good question.

There are plenty of links we could list that have to do with content creation, headers, subject matters, blogging strategy, and links (to name a few). I wanted to concentrate on one thing that my readers and small business owners could implement tomorrow.

Relationship Building.

You will find that after meeting a person off-line you will tend to read their content a little more frequently. Now, this does not guarantee a massive amount of traffic to your site but in all reality… don’t we want qualified readers instead?

I would rather have 400 daily readers than 4,000 “kind-of” readers.

Take your blog out into the world with you. Share your content in more ways than just online. Tell people about your blog or website when you meet them at a networking event!

Be proud of what you do, what you write, and what you live.

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At Least You Are Trying Social Media

Chris Brogan has a recent post called You’re Doing It Wrong. The post discusses the concept that we are all doing it wrong at one time or another (pertaining to social media). I was reading it tonight while watching NCIS or CSI… or maybe it was Law & Order? I am not quite sure. Beside the point…

I realized something extremely important after reading the post. And by all counts of innovative thought or light bulb moments… this doesn’t compare whatsoever but it does shed light on something simple.

At Least You Are Trying

The majority of my days are spent talking with small business owners about social media marketing. We have developed strategies and tools that allow our clients to use social media as a tool in their marketing plan. While it is important to have a strategy and the tools… it is also just as important to dip your feet into the pool. Just try it.

You can read multiple blogs about the rights and wrongs of using social media. You can rant and rave about not using Twitter, using Friendfeed, whether AUTO-DMs are right or wrong, organic search marketing or paid search… the truth of the matter is.. and I am going to quote Chris:

“Because we’re all doing it our own way, and it’s not always going to match the way you think it works best. And just like pretty much all of life, we’ll get there somehow.”

It is extremely important to start in your own way. Get out there are try the tools after the kids go to bed. Surf through facebook for 30 mins on your lunch break. Get acquainted.

Once you get acquainted… maybe then it will be the time to hire a firm or spend some money on a strategy plan for social media. And then again…

At least you are trying.

Small Biz Use of Social Media to Double in 12 Months

My father, Dan Lacy, sent me a SearchEngineWatch.com link in my email today that talked about the number of small business and social media. Now, I am a huge fan of small businesses and I am a huge fan of social media. I had to open it.

According to the Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, the number of small businesses using social networking services and strategies will double in the next year. Now, this is good news for companies like man that want to help small businesses leverage social media. It is good to see a tool being adopted by the small businesse market (my favorite).

I do have one word of warning to small business owners wanting to leverage social media. If you are wanting to enter the social media space whether it is through social networking sits, a blog, podcasts, wikis, blah blah blah make sure you have a strategy in place to complete your efforts. Get the right training and social media partner. It is a must.

Danny Brown made a great comment on the post saying:

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Notoriety to Aspiration: 5 of 10 Social Media Commandments

As a collective group we have been working through the 10 Commandments of Emotional Branding in Marc Gobe’s book, Emotional Branding. We have been applying the ten concepts to social media marketing and how you should be applying them to your social business strategy.

The fifth commandment is the concept moving from notoriety to aspiration.

From Marc Gobe:

“Being known does not mean that you are also loved! Notoriety is what gets you known. But if you want to be desired, you must convey something that is in keeping with the customer’s aspirations. (pg. xxx, Emotional Branding)”

This is my favorite commandment in the entire list because it one of the more important principles in social media: QUALITY over QUANTITY. Anyone can spend twelve hours a day adding everyone and their mother to their social profile. The question is, what makes them different from everyone else spending an ungodly amount of time online? Nothing. It takes a little personality to push you over the edge. Scott Stratten at Un-Marketing does this the best way possible on Twitter. Add him.

There is a split down the middle for small business owners. Many of us want to create relationships online but there is no guarantee for return on investment. This is especially important if you are using social media as a customer relationship and marketing tool. The truth of the matter is this…

It takes time and resources to truly utilize social media. It should be implemented into your marketing budget as a piece of the pie. And remember…

You can add as many people as you want but don’t be upset when you have thousands of followers and no revenue.

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