JMPR Communication

BlogWorld was the muse I needed to push my practices forward.  I want to share everything with you all, but I think you’d fall asleep before I got very far.  I like lists, so I present you with the Ultimate (high-level) Top 10 list of BlogWorld lessons for the non-attendee.

1. Don’t be afraid to be awesome.  You are awesome.  Own it.  Now go do something with your awesomeness.
2. We all know content is king.  It still is.  If you don’t have great content, no one will care about your blog.
3. More than content, a blog should drive your end-user to take some kind of action. Maybe that action is to enter a contest.  Maybe that action is to answer a question.  Perhaps the action is to purchase your product.  But the main thing is that you want to sustain your visitors.  Think about how YOU can do that.
4. We can’t forget that social media is an “us.” Your blog isn’t about you or your company.  Blog to build a community, not an audience.  In fact, if you pay attention, your community will control your content- and this is good.
   1. Speaking of which, go and meet some of “us” face-to-face.  Old fashioned networking is still awesome.
   2. Listen before you sell, and maybe don’t even sell at all: The phrase “you wouldn’t walk into a networking event and yell at the crowd, “HI! Read my book!” came up in almost every session.  You know why?  Because we all really need to learn how to listen better to all of “us.”  Even online.
5. Use social media for good.  This might mean that you work with attendees at a conference to #beatcancer and raise money.  Maybe you introduce two people who have collaboration potential to each other.  Maybe you blog about why someone else/some other company rocks. Whatever you do, help people.
6. Businesses- you get a few bullets.
   1. Let go.  People that are not your top executives may want to blog, and they should.
   2. Stop worrying about negative comments.  People leave negative comments because they care enough to have their problem fixed.  These folks like giving praise when their issues are resolved.  Why hide from this?
   3. Don’t just arm your bloggers with a list of don’ts.  Why not give them some dos?
   4. Don’t assume your end-users will come to you.  Find where they are and talk to them there.
   5. Show your personality.  Mix your business posts with human posts.  People buy products from people.
7. Search is important.  Use keywords to drive people to your site. People might visit your site to solve one problem one time.  That’s ok.  And if you think about it, your search terms are the only thing you really can control when you blog.
8. E-mail marketing is back.  But now, it’s a forum to be personal, build relationships and generate conversation.
9. There are a ton of tools you can use to make your job easier.  (I will post about these tools separately.)
10. PR people:
    1. The journalists don’t care about your press release.  They care about the story you are trying to tell.  Send them the story.  Only the story.
    2. Bloggers don’t care how many people you have been ordered to pitch.  But they REALLY care that you follow their pitch rules and send targeted, concise information.
    3. Build relationships with bloggers before you ask a favor.  Maybe e-mail and say “hi” and thank them for an article they have recently written?

So there you have it.  My top 10 take-aways from BlogWorld 2009. Oh, and it was FUN, too!  Where else can you pose for a picture with Captain Morgan?

JenMitch and Captain Morgan: BlogWorld 2009

Did you attend?  What makes your list of take-aways?

For those that didn’t attend, did any of these resonate with you as something you should be doing better?

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.

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