For my MBA level course Marketing with Social Media with Prof Bill Belew, the textbook that we are referring to is “Marketing With Social Media“

Easy to follow, beautifully illustrated with examples from Bill’s own websites, this book is a guide to anyone who wants to know how to use Social Media to advance one’s business. For those who have a website of their own, weather for professional purposes or for personal reasons, the most important thing is to get their content to those who matter. And this book shows you the practical way to do that.

The most important takeaways for me personally have been the following:

1. Blogging is not just a hobby anymore.

In Chapter 3 , Prof B explains why blogging is not just about passing the time anymore. Social Media does help you get in touch with your customers, but Blogs actually get read by the people who matter, who are your real customers and who are definitely going to buy from you. Even when compared against the more popular media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc (or the ‘princes’ as Bill refers them to Ch3, Pg 14), Blogs outweigh them all because of the obvious reasons … Customer engagement is more with blogs, because you can get their feedback, opinions and ideas about your products/services. You can say what you want to without the fear of word limits. ROI is more for Blogs. Most importantly, you do not get buried in the heap of piling posts on your customers “walls”. They can always find you. (Ch 3, Pg 15)

2. Content Matters

This book explains the ideal content in 4 simple points

• Quantity
• Quality
• Consistency
• Longevity

Not just the number of articles/posts on your website matter, but also their quality. Adding the content regularly to your website and making sure that you stay with your blog long enough (Not Giving Up) are the four most important factors that determine if you will get serious traffic on your blog or not

As per Bill, Blogging is a way to be found, to have people come looking for you (Ch4, Pg 29).

While researching on how to start with the content for my blog, I came across a large number of articles that told me do this and do that. But nothing beats the simplicity of these 4 topics. You master them, you master the art of getting content on your website. This is what I have illustrated in my post on Successful implementation of Content Marketing Strategy

3. Cover The Basics

When I started writing for the blog What Works & What Doesn’t, I had a very difficult time getting started. For days I sat with my head in my hands, frustrated, ready to pull out my hair, because I did not know how to get going. I knew what I was going to write about, so I had a part fo my work covered but writing was an altogether different matter.  Luckily for me, this book explains in the simplest of terms the basics of blogging that I needed to cover for my blog to take off.

From using the Taglines, to picking out the categories (Ch 6, Pg 38), to even deciding on the look of the website, I found everything I needed to know here.

4. Presentation Matters

I was on Chapter 5 Biggest Obstacles to Getting Your Blog Started and What to Do to Overcome Them (Pg 30), When I realized that I am finding it easier and easier to understand each chapter and not just because of the way Bill is explaining. It is the way he is presenting the data as well. Each chapter is in the form of Lists “5 Biggest Obstacles”, “4 Keys”, “5 reasons” etc. And I realized that I have been following the same pattern of writing the posts for my blog. Or rather “List Posts”. Writing list posts for the blogs is not only a great way to catch your reader’s eyes, but it is also easier for the blogger to present the content without cluttering the space. My blog post 8 Amazing Hooks for Link Baits, and 5 steps to successful Implementation of Content Marketing Strategy are written in the same way.

5. Use of Infographics

Explaining his point with the help of data collected from his own websites, Bill uses various forms of Infographics to keep the read easy and catchy. Pie Charts, Bar Graphs, Cartoons are a few of the forms of visual presentation that have proven to catch the reader’s eyes. Though I am yet to make use of the graphs and charts, I do use images, cartoons etc to make my posts attractive for the readers. Especially noticeable is my post on Link Bait Guide.

6. Post Length

Before starting on my blog, I was confused about the optimum post length. I researched a lot and then finally bought the book that Bill had recommended and I finally found my answer. Nothing less than 200 words work for search engines (Ch 8, Pg 57)  The book suggests dividing the posts into a number of posts with Part 1 and Part 2 mentioned in the titles. My post on LinkBait guide for beginners is divided into parts A Beginner’s Guide To Creating Viral LinkBait – Part 1, A Beginner’s Guide To Creating Viral LinkBait – Part 2 and A Beginner’s Guide To Creating Viral LinkBait – Part 3

7. Value of Links

The book emphasizes the value of adding external as well as internal links (Ch8, Pg 58).  Quality links from good authority websites not only add to the link juice for your website but also may lead to an increased traffic from related relevant websites. Even though I have not used many internal links for my posts since I do not have many pages/posts to link to, I do make a point to link to other websites writing on the similar topics. (I would want them to return the favor too)

8. Importance of going viral.

Until and unless your post gets read by people who matter, it doesn’t matter. To get your posts noticed by people you need to get them viral. However, in order to get viral, a post should have information that is displayed in a manner that compels your readers to share it across their networks. The book describes 37 Ways to get a post viral (Ch8, Pg65). My post on Guest Posting To Increase Traffic also deals with the importance of going viral through guest posting.

9. Importance of Perseverance

A blog takes a long time to build a loyal fan following and readership. It takes even longer to start making money. So should we give up? Bill explains the importance of perseverance for writing a blog and making it a success in Ch 7, Pg 53. The key here is to be committed and consistent. I need to be consistent with my updates and keep it up too.

10. Ultimate Goal : Customer Engagement = Increased Traffic

Getting people to comment on your blogs (Ch 8, Pg 63), encouraging subscribers (Pg 66), getting guests to post on your website, doing interviews and using social media to interact with your customers (Pg 67) are the ways to encourage the customer engagement with your website and make them a participant instead of users and increase quality traffic on your website. I have added a small button for “Contact Us Today” on all my posts to get them to click. Also I am thinking of adding a “Subscribe Today” button to keep them interested further.

Hence, Customer Engagement = Increased Traffic

 I guess as long as I follow these lessons, I am going to see the kind of results that Prof Bill published in his book.