If you are blogging, you have to do it regularly. So set a schedule and hit that 300-350 word quota.

Why blog?

A bunch of reasons including to demonstrate your subject matter expertise; for publicity (PR); to become a Trusted Advisor; for reputation; or to just be heard.

In general, you blog for marketing.

A side effect of blogging (and other social networking) is SEO (search engine optimization) – or at the very least, search engine results. If you create enough organic, genuine content around your subject or topic (or keyword), the search engines will ikely find it (eventually). The more content and the more frequent you create content, the better your search results. So blog often.

Seth Godin would say that is your lizard brain yelling at you. It’s creating excuses, throwing up obstacles. I say, “Just do it.”

You can’t write, but you can if you practice. You can if you are writing about something you believe it. (You believe in your company’s products and services, I hope.)

You have to make time. Marketing costs money or time. Either hire a marketing firm or schedule some time – regular appointments when you are freshest is best.

What do I write about? I have answered this numerous times. Tell stories about your customers, your community, your industry, your employees, your charity. What do you talk about at networking events? Write a short post about that. (It’s a place to start!)

You are a lousy writer – now. With practice (and maybe some editorial help) you will get better. But to do that you have to get started!

If you don’t want to write — audio and video work too!

UTB Social Media Seminar from Zack Koczanski on Vimeo.

Coverage of the UTB Social Media Seminar at the Hilton Garden Inn, Oldsmar on Friday September 11, 2009. Sponsored by the UTB Chamber of Commerce, the event drew over 40 people. The topic was “Social Media – does Your Business Belong in This Game?” A well versed panel of experts presented information and answered questions.
This program was part of the Small Business on-going educational offering by the UTB Chamber.

Like a TV commercial, you need to grab the audience in the first 3 to 5 seconds. But it’s more than just the attention grabbing. Your message has to be powerful, memorable, and concise.

The rule of marketing is the same for online video, offline media or social media. These vehicles only work if the marketing works. [The marketing being that you have a powerful, concise, easy to share message. The more memorable or emotional it is the better it can resonate with your audience.]

At the AMA Tampa Bay meeting on Online Video, there were some good examples of video messaging. One was Julia Gorzka’s use of video to get the story out about Tampa’s own tortilla factory (savethetortillas.com).

Another example was Ken Donaldson, who is a relationship counselor. He spoke about the ease of video to get the message out and how he has built his practice through video and blogging.

Like any medium, if the message is boring, you won’t get a response. In today’s frenetic attention deficit society, you not only need your marketing to be ON, but your video better be on some fast servers and load quick!

1. Number one is that these are all just tools to be used. Used for what? To have a conversation.
2. Number two is that social media is mainly about being Social. That means having a conversation, even if that conversation is one to many. People do business with people, not faceless companies. Your profiles should not be a logo, but a real live person.
3. Number three is you need to be Transparent and Authentic.
4. Number four is that your Offline Marketing should be working With your Online marketing. It isn’t two separate strategies.  Online and offline need to work together.
5. Number five is that social media is about engagement, not self-promotion (or what I call puking). It is the sincere application of the Law of Attraction or as Zig Ziglar says, “If you help enough people get what they want, you will get everything you want.”

One of the best things you can do is to tell stories. Authentic stories about your customers, your employees, your company values or policies. People remember and can re-tell good stories. Isn’t that what you want?

Like BarCamp, the principles are simple: Give, Share, Learn, and Network. That’s what social media is in a nutshell.

In the session on Corporate Blogging at the AMA Tampa Bay’s Web Strategies Summit today, I am presenting with Shawna Vercher of VTi-Web and the HuffingtonPost.

Rolling out a blogging platform too. Details here.

Social media impact is hard to measure – like, say, reputation management. But as @unmarketing says, “How do you ROI or measure your other business relationships?”

Right now, a social media experiment for a company would cost about $20K. But in 18 months to 2 years, it will likely cost 10x that. Get in now. Experiment. Fail. Try again.

Peter Radizeski will be speaking about Corporate Blogging at the AMA Tampa Bay’s one day Digital Marketing Conference on March 6, 2009 with Shawna Vercher.

We will be talking about the 4 pillars to Corporate Blogging.

Want to win a free ticket? Hit me up on Twitter and tell me why you should get one.

My email is not the palce to send a press release. I have Google Adwords and Google News Search for that. There are folks that print press releases converted into news. I am not one of them.

I am not a full-time blogger. I have other responsibilities – mainly to my clients and my business. Blogging for me is marketing for my company and a way to let prospects know what I know about the industry. (I write about telecom (ISP/CLEC/ILEC/RBOC), internet companies, VoIP, and the Indirect Channel).  So unless you are relevant, you are annoying me. And I am an Angry Penguin when annoyed!And I will never mention your clients name in my blogs – ever! I will mention your name but only as an example of what NOT to do.

Some firms I have dealt with get it. They email me to ask if I would like an email interview with an executive or a quick phone call to go with the announcement. That provides for better blog content than me re-writing a press release.

Also, PR firms email me to see if I will be at the same conference as their clients. This can result in a face-to-face meeting which can result in better content for both of us plus my getting a better understanding of what you do.

You want your clients in the blog; I want good content relevant to my readers.

Sarah Evans has a post about PR and bloggers with some good advice.