Welcome to the Friday Five's series. Each week, I ask selected Tweeps a question to answer in five parts. This week's question:
What are the five social media tools you can't do without?
This week's answers come from:
- Mark Schaefer Writes the blog {grow}, with has one of the most consistent and vibrant blog communities around. Mark teaches social media and does consulting. Author of the Tao of Twitter, he is @markschaefer on Twitter. Mark's tips: Write from the heart, then sit on the post for a couple of days, include a graphic, pay attention to the title, and respond meaningfully to comments.
- Davina K. Brewer Owner of 3Hats Communications, Davina is a PR specialist located in Atlanta. Her blog regularly provides amusing and useful information. She can be found on Twitter under @3hatscomm. Davina's tips: Get over yourself, check your own blog for topics you've missed, bookmark other people's useful posts, pick a topic relevant to your audience, and edit, edit, edit.
- Jay Baer Author of the Now Revolution, Jay is a staple in social media circles. He speaks and writes about social media, and runs a consulting company. His blog is Convine and Convert and he can be found on Twitter as @jaybaer. Jay's tips: Pick the key takeaway, then the supporting points, figure out how to convey the information visually, pick search keywords, and write a great headline.
- Mack Collier A trainer, speaker, and consultant, Mack is the creator of #blogchat. His well-known blog provides regular insight and analysis into social media. a communications and social media consultant. Oh, and I'm told by a reliable source that Mack's just a downright nice guy. He's @mackcollier on Twitter. Mack's tips: decide who the post is for and how it will be useful, pick an attention-grabbing title, add a picture, and include call to action.
- Myself, Neicole Crepeau I'm the Online Strategist at Coherent Interactive, and specialize in social media and website and mobile application design. I'm @neicolec on Twitter. Neicole's tools: Hootsuite, Twitter.com, FeedmyInbox, TweetChat, Wordpress.
Here's what they had to say about these tools:
Mark Schaefer
The five steps I take with every blog post:
1) I dig deep in my heart and mind to write a post that can only come from me. At the end of the day, that is the only way any of us can stand out.
2) I let the blog post sit a day or two if I can. Usually when I come back I have a fresh perspective to improve it and tighten it up.
3) I spend a lot of time thinking about the headline. For many people, this is going to be the factor that even determines if they read it or not!
4) I "decorate" my blog with a fanciful graphic or illustration. This takes a little more time and effort but it is a way I can add a little fun and entertainment value for my readers. And it is also fun for me!
5) I try to answer every comment in a meaningful way. When people take the time to leave a comment, this is a great gift. I respect that.
Davina K. Brewer
I don't have a real plan. Sometimes posts flow so quickly, one tweet inspiration and I have a blog post in a hour. Other times, the post is sitting in draft for a few months, a current event serves as the perfect foil, so a few updates and voila. Other times, it's teeth gnashing and SEO torture. So my five steps:
1) Panic, freak out, stress and worry. Then get over myself.
2) Review my own blog for things covered, not, and what can be improved.
3) Read other blogs, the news, Twitter.. see what's relevant, if anything inspires me. Keep bookmarks of helpful posts for linking, comment all over the place. THIS usually is what leads to the ideas. Maybe it was a tweet or a comment elsewhere, it's the social part of this networking that gets my creative energies going.
4) Pick a topic relevant to my readers and the audience of SMBs I'm trying to develop. Write what I know, my approach to PR and social media. Then just start typing, stop when I hit about 500 words.
5) Edit, edit, edit. Find the appropriately silly graphic, write a decent headline. Finally publish.
Jay Baer
1. First, I determine what the blog post is about. What's the single main takeaway I want readers to have at the end? I usually document that in my blog post worksheet.
2. Second, I determine the secondary and supporting points. What will I use to build my case? Research? Pontification? Guesses? Lies? To make sure I'm not overwriting, I limit myself to two or three of these in almost every instance.
3. Third, I determine what relevant search term(s) fit this post. I use Scribe SEO (scribeseo.com) (a terrific Wordpress plug-in from Copyblogger and worth the money) to help me find and hone the best possible search terms for blog post inclusion. I don't write every single post with SEO in mind, but I do pay attention to it.
4. Fourth, I determine the look of the post. What's the best way to convey this information visually? I insist on having at least one image in every post. I typically use Shutterstock, (shutterstock.com) as they are a sponsor of my blog. Sometimes, however, the image in the post isn't a photo. In those cases, I might embed a video, a presentation from SlideShare, or a document from Scribd. This is also the stage when I think about bullet points versus numbers versus H2 and H3 headline tags, and other formatting details.
5. The last step is actually the most important: writing the headline. If you're not a great headline writer, it will be much harder to become a successful blogger. This is because in almost all cases, readers only have your headline to decide whether to click and read. I write three headlines for each blog post. The one that actually runs on the blog, and then two others that I use on Twitter and sometimes on Facebook. I tweet each post three times, with each of the three headlines I've written.
Mack Collier
Here's my 5 steps for every post:
1 - Decide who I am writing the post for.
2 - Decide what the post will be about and how it will be useful to the people I am writing it for.
3 - Decide on the post title. I want one that grabs attention, but that's also true to the content of the post.
4 - What picture I will use for the post. Similar to the title, it needs to be attention-grabbing, but still relevant.
5 - Add a call to action. I try to do this with every post, and the action I want the person to take as a result of the post.
Neicole Crepeau
1. Come up with a good headline and let the words flow. Like Jay, I often have several relatively catchy headlines, and use the alternates to promote the post in Twitter. For me, the title often comes first.
I've been writing for a long time and have gotten used to taking advantage of those visits from the muse. When the words are coming, I let them keep coming. That means I might write four blog posts in one stint, if the words are presenting themselves.
2. Add internal and external links. I try to link to my own content, where appropriate, because that helps with SEO and driving traffic within my site. I also make sure to link to sources and use links to appropriately credit others for ideas.
3. Edit, tighten, and highlight key points. I try to make my posts concise. Long experience has taught me that people don't want to read. So, I try to make my content really useful and I use bold, green text to highlight key points. I often summarize long posts at the top of the post.
4. Promote on Twitter and LinkedIn. I tweet my posts, using Hootsuite to schedule tweets. I often also put them up in LinkedIn discussions, where they are relevant.
5. Monitor and respond to comments. I make sure to check my blog a couple of times a day, each day, for comments. I don't get the kind of volume that Mark does, but I make sure to review, accept, and respond to comments, like a good blogger does.