The Wax Blog

Most social media plans have the same problem  as  most marketing plans – they aren’t “actionable”.  They often do a great job of describing the current state of affairs, customer psychographics, company “brand” …and then the client says “now what?” So I’ve decided to begin a series of posts that will help you create a social media  plan that can become a living document for your personal or business social media activities. In this post, I’ll describe the main components. In the following posts, I’ll explain how to create each component. I’m by no means an expert in social media, but I DO know the components small businesses and entrepreneurs need to create a road map for any promotional activity, online, in traditional media or on the ground.

To being with, let’s start with the basic pieces of the plan – PLEASE pipe in with ideas or areas that you think I may have missed. (more…)

After such strong comments on my post about corporate digital footprints, I got a REAL expert to weigh in on monitoring your online reputation. Here are Kevin Kaiser’s thoughts – Kevin is the founder of Startup Biz Blog an up and coming small business blog with some really smart advice. Stay tuned as I kick off my new series on writing an actionable social media plan next Monday.

After all of the energy you’ve put into creating your company, don’t let it get lost in the giant tangle of the world wide web. Managing your online reputation so that people get the correct picture of your company right off the bat is more important now than ever. (more…)

By Beth Graddon-Hodgson

If you’ve got a business blog, at some point, you’ve probably considered writing a guest post for another blog or online publication. Some bloggers are hesitant about doing this, thinking “why would I drive traffic to someone else’s site when I can focus on doing the same for my own?” Well, like many things these posts have addressed about blogging, that’s another misconception.

Here are some of the reasons why guest blogging for another blog will help you improve your own blog’s web traffic and help advance your business. So open yourself up to the idea, and it’ll be a good thing!

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Whenever I’m discussing the prospect of blogging for a new client, one of the first questions I’m asked by those who don’t already have a blog setup is “should it be on my website?” My answer is always “yes, of course!” That isn’t because I offer blog setup or design services (well, I do coordinate them, when necessary) so that’s not my answer because it means a greater profit for me; it’s because I want my clients to get the best results possible from their blog. Usually, that’s where the discussion about it ends, and since I never get to share the “why”; now seems like a good time.

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Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had conversations with clients that have decided social media can do nothing for them. One client comes from a very traditional industry, another from the B2B world. I’ve stopped trying to convince people to engage, it’s just not worth it. Instead I’ve begun to talk to them about building an appropriate digital footprint for their business. Last June I wrote a post on measuring your digital footprint that is still my number one visited post of all time. But I was remiss in writing that post first. Instead, I needed to explain why you really want to plan, manage and measure a digital footprint in the first place…for your business or brand.  And why you should be MORE focused on this aspect of your online presence than on hitting the first page in Google search.

According to Free Dictionary the definition of karma is the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person’s existence, regarded as determining the person’s destiny. Beth Hodgson’s last post about the boomerang effect – what happens when you get even more traffic by sending it to others from your blog -  stirred up some comments about how karma works in the blogosphere. (Thanks Jorgen for kicking that discussion off and I’d love to hear YOUR stories too!) It got me thinking about my clients, and how their attitudes and actions affect the kind of PR results they get. Read on to find out how MUCH karma affects results. (more…)

Marketers know the power of moms – Robin Neifeld of Clickz reports that moms account for 80% of consumer purchases and nearly $1.6 million in annual spending.  And one of the best places to find moms is through blogs. But don’t underestimate this group of women – it’s one of the most sophisticated and particular segments of online media. Pitch them well and you could have a friend for life.  But if you screw up – well let’s just say they’re VERY well connected.

Lian Dolan

Luckily, we were able to get some advice on this topic from one of the most well known women in the genre – Lian Dolan is the youngest of the famed Satellite Sisters. Satellitesisters.com has been a site, radio show, blog, podcast, and e-newsletter for over a decade.  The concept of Satellite Sisters is five real sisters sharing their very different lives with their audience. As such they cover a wide range of topics, from headline news to Thanksgiving recipes. The Satellite Sisters audience is women, not just moms, age 34 to 55.

Lian launched Chaoschronicles.com in 2008. The site  covers Modern Motherhood with humor and empathy. The Chaos Chronicles started as a magazine column in Working Mother Magazine in 2003. Now, it is a successful blog and weekly podcast, focused on motherhood and all that entails form parenting challenges to bad haircut meltdowns.  Lian is also the regular parenting blogger on the relationships page of Oprah.com, offering humor and advice in the areas of parenting, marriage and other familial relationships.

Could we have found a better person to teach us how to pitch mom bloggers? I think not! To find how how Lian answered my questions on reaching this incredibly influential media market read on… (more…)

One struggle I have with my clients at times is convincing them that they need to credit sources. Their opposition isn’t because they don’t want to credit the sources that they use, it’s because they’re afraid they’re sending traffic away from their website. It’s a common fear, but that isn’t the reality, at least not exactly. (more…)

For entrepreneurs, small business owners and experts, the daily query boards like HARO and ProfNet can be incredible resources for gaining media placements. From major news broadcast shows to popular niche bloggers, these sites host queries from journalists and producers looking for specific sources for current stories.  Despite how great these resources are,  reporters tell me most  folks  blow their chances completely by the time they write the first sentence in response to a query. Here are some ways to up your chances for getting the media to email you regarding a query, and hopefully get mentioned in a major story! (more…)