I saw a few excellent blog posts this week that echoed common pet peeves of mine. I have frequently observed businesses engaging in marketing practices that not only lack any strategy whatsoever, but also any mechanism for tracking whether they work or not.

The three specific areas to which I’m referring: Organic SEO, social media, and press releases. I could name plenty more, but these three should give you plenty to chew on.

Organic SEO

Gabriella Sannino’s SearchEngineJournal article hits one nail right on the head: setting clear expectations for organic SEO and content writing. Anyone who asks you to shell out money for months on end and refuses to promise anything of substance….you fill in the blank. Like lifestyle design guru Timothy Ferriss says, good advertising works the first time. This applies to organic search as well as anything else. That doesn’t mean you should expect overnight results, but it does mean that you need to put tracking mechanisms in place and define your minimum acceptable goal. If you don’t know whether or not something is working, it probably isn’t.

Social Media

If your company has been slow to adopt a social media strategy, read Chris Brogan’s post. Perhaps the reason the management team hasn’t made a priority of social media is the simple fact that they don’t understand it. Let’s be honest here: if you don’t understand social media, you probably shouldn’t do anything with it. Doing nothing at all is better than trying to use Facebook as a phone book ad. Instead, look at real-life examples of companies who have successfully integrated social media into their marketing strategy (translation: companies that are actually making money with social media).

Press Releases

Nichola Stott taught me a new word this week: “churnalism.” Ok, the term might be ten years old and I might just be catching up to the times – but press releases have adopted a new place in the toolbox of spammers and follow-the-crowd marketers. Press releases work when you have actual news to talk about. The fact that your company still exists isn’t news. The fact that you just updated your web site is not news. Before submitting a press release, ask yourself: if a stranger submitted a similar news release about their company, would you be interested in reading it?

Thoughts? Leave a comment.

I don’t know about you; but for me, when I am surfing the net and come across a blog site, I’m immediately drawn or turned away by the following things:

• Length- Length is an ongoing issue for many people. More often than not, lengthy blogs tend to lose their readers either because of the way in which they are written, the typeface that is used, external distractions on the page or due to long, unbroken text that simply doesn’t give the eye enough of a break. Personally, I don’t mind reading a slightly lengthier blog as long as it has a point. Additionally, I find that, like a good book, if the opening line isn’t great, chances are I won’t get past it. That being said, when writing blog posts, always aim to keep it short and to the point
• Title- As stated earlier, the opening line is a biggie. Equally as important (if not moreso) is the title that you attribute to the blog post you are writing. The trick is to know when to keep people guessing versus knowing when to just spell it out for them to let them decide. For instance, a blog post that is titled like this one informs the reader of exactly what he or she will be reading about whereas a blog that is titled “The Day I Died” is more abstract. Both blogs titles draw in a potential reader because of the title. Try not to be too abstract or vague because rather then draw in the reader, you will do the opposite. So, for instance, something titled, “What I Did Today” wouldn’t really garner much readership.
• Focus-What is the focus of your blog? This should be spelled out or made pretty darn clear within the first few lines. You never want someone to reach the middle of your blog post or [gasp] the end of your post and still have no idea what it was they just read.
• Pictures- Pictures are an excellent way to draw people into a blog. They can also be incredibly distracting if they are too large, too small or too frequently used. Use the amount of text within your post to help guide you in terms of how large or small the picture should be. In most cases, pictures are usually used as a sort of aside to the blog. The only real time a picture should be made huge is if it is the focus of your blog post. In this case, showcasing the photo at either the beginning or at the end of your blog post would be acceptable.
• Ads-For those out there who have websites or blogs that are monetized, ads may seem like a godsend. However, like someone who gets a tattoo, it isn’t long before one ad simply isn’t enough. The economy may be tough right now, but it is still no reason to pepper your website with advertisements and banner ads. If you absolutely must have ads, consider putting them all on a separate page. Not only are ads distracting, but they begin to look somewhat sloppy and less professional as you accumulate more of them.

What are some things that you do or don’t like to see on blogs?

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