Blogging When You Are to Busy to Blog

I figured I would use this blog to possibly help some of my classmates who may be struggling with blogging simply because of their hectic schedules. Blogging with purpose can be time consuming for some but there are ways around that. The answer is working smarter and not harder. Here are a couple of tips to help make blogging more manageable even with strict time constraints:

Micro-content can be your savior: We live in a day and age where most do no wish to read long and overly informative pieces. They wish to get the important aspects and for bloggers to get pretty much right down to the point.  Anything from info-graphics to short videos to captioned photos, these somewhat seemingly small clumps of information are easy to prepare and just as easy for your readers to enjoy. Likewise, they are every bit as engaging and as effective as that 500-word blog post you never have time to write.

Curating your content rather than creating it can also be a viable option. Think about it. How many times are we really the creators of content never been introduced before? You can find relevant content about what you wanted to blog about. You can then blend up the information you found, organize it and present it with your very take and insights on the matter. Content curating is a great way to help you increase your knowledge of the industry or subject matter, establish your credibility and trust with your audiences and build audience loyalty while at the same time delighting them with content that is entertaining or useful.

Blog Comment #5: http://sarahcthoughts.tumblr.com/post/111201777348/brewery-tour-weekend

That was a really great idea. It would have been a nice experience. Next year I may have to check that out. Sounds like a really great time. I love beer too by-the-way!

Interpreting Social Customer Data

In any instance where the objective is to learn something, actually listening is the first step. No on ever learned anything new by doing all of the talking. The same applies to companies and brands when they are using social media to learn more about their consumers needs and wants. Some important questions companies should ask themselves to assess what customer data is important are:

What kind of issues are my customers struggling with and talking about online?

When are people talking about me?

Who is complaining about what?

Constant monitoring of a company's social media presence will reveal the answers to these questions, but interpreting and understanding what it all means is something different altogether.

1. Listen First Before Replying: Develop an understanding of your brand’s reputation, who your customers are, and when your community is most actively talking about you.
2. Structure Incoming Questions: Divide the incoming questions in logical categories by adding tags to individual social media messages in order to identify the most important pain points about your product (complaints, questions, positive buzz, etc.). 
3. Create Reports and Bring Your Management Up to Date: Create reports for your management to inform them about the bigger picture and acquaint them with the general sentiment of your incoming messages, your community’s demographics, when your community is active, your community’s tone of voice, etc. This usually is a true eye-opener: this type of information opens up new perspective, which is incredibly useful to starting creating or adjusting your social media strategy.

Blog Comment #4 http://sarahcthoughts.tumblr.com/post/110540865033/what-kind-of-wing-nut-are-you 

Awesome idea! I am huge fan of Amicis, and usually go every Wednesday when they have their wings special. I mat indeed enter the contest this week! 

Google Plus is a Plus for Business

Google Plus is a social media initiative that can be used to do a lot of different things. One of its many capabilities is its ability to help businesses.Google Plus can be used to build company identities.

• Build Presence:
• Add people to your circles
• Share your content
• Engage in communities
• Engage in hangouts
• Connect with Target Customers: 
• Keyword Search
• Community Involvement
• Establish Industry Expertise: You can establish your industry expertise by sharing relevant content and sharing resources. Write content that is important to your customers. Keep them updated with new information, tips, tricks, how-tos, tutorials, and ideas that will be helpful to them. You can also follow experts from your business niche, network and engage with them.
• Show up in Google.com Search: There are ways you can increase your search results and have higher rankings using Google+:
• Optimize Google+ profile and business page
• Connect Google+ to your company website
• Connect to peers: Google+ is a great way to connect and share with your peers; family, friends, teachers, classmates, etc. The more peers you follow, they are going to follow you back, which is an excellent way to get your rankings in search results higher.

Blog Comment 3: http://jarednewberg.blogspot.com/2015/02/johnny-rehab.html

We all know that Johnny Manziel hasn't exemplified the best character in the world, but this is a great first step in the right direction for him. His journey to becoming a better person and teammate will require him to do some deep soul searching and figure out what is truly important to him. He has all the talent in the world, but as we have seen, all the talent in the world doesn't amount to anything without character.