I could subtitle this post: How to Learn Social Media Marketing.

The ecairn blog has a list of the top 150 social media blogs. The list was created by their tool that identifies influencers. I wish it were a graphic and I would pin it on Pinterest. Since it isn’t, go check it out.

Here’s a preview:

#1 is Chris Brogan

#2 is Seth Godin

MarketingProfs is #10.

Peter Shankman and others are on the list. It’s fun to note who I’ve met or heard speak. There are a few I haven’t heard of. I consider many on this list my marketing heroes and people I’ve admired and learned from for many years. I’ve invited or worked on campaigns to get them to speak locally.

At this point I mostly follow my favorites on Twitter. Recently I’ve subscribed to some on Facebook. I don’t spend as much time learning as I did in the beginning because I’m implementing what I’ve learned and come up with.

Many times people think that they can become an expert by attending conferences and reading but at some point you must practice. Once you learn the principles of social media marketing and get to know the tools a lot of the work is creative. You have to think. I wish there was a magic wand but there isn’t. While you can be inspired by seeing what other people do that is successful (I search Google and press releases because most of the time people write brag about what worked) you have to do it to really learn.

Just remember that even experts are still learning, thinking and trying out ideas.

Someone asked me recently how to learn social media marketing. Here’s my answer:

• Go through this list and add each blog to your reader (like Google Reader)
• Set aside consistent time to read posts they write. You’ll find who you like and learn from the most, so then just concentrate on their blog.
• Comment on the posts you love.
• Really get to know the bloggers you read. Find out when and where they are speaking and try to not only go hear them, but meet them. Get your picture taken with them.  This is very motivating and inspiring.
• Follow your favorites on Twitter, subscribe to them on Facebook and Google+ (depending on where you’re most active). Everyone shares slightly differently on each platform, find one or all ways to track your favorite bloggers.
• Look for webinars, recordings (search Google to see if they have podcasts), slides (slideshare) and YouTube videos by your favorite bloggers.
• Practice applying the principles you learn from reading and listening to the bloggers.

As mentioned in the blog post I’m referencing, BlogWorld is a great place to meet several of your social media blogging heroes in one place.

One last thing, there are people who do this as their job and that is all. I’ve never considered it work because I’m passionate about social media marketing. Even after a full day of work I want to come home (ok, most days I work from home as a consultant) and read more, learn more and try different ideas. If you have to make yourself learn this because it would be good for your career you might want to consider a different career. While knowing social media will help you in most careers there are many jobs that don’t require or even discourage it.

To me this is FUN. Not every second, but overall I love it.

One of my favorite business activities is hosting, attending, or studying great blogger events and campaigns.  I’m still fascinated with the power of blogs and what a revolution it is in the media world.

Tonight I had dinner at Cafe Zupas. They are a casual restaurant chain that serves gourmet soups, salads and sandwiches.

Zupas is great at blogging. The blog looks great (or at least it used to – not as crazy about the new look) and they enlisted several local food bloggers to write for them. They chose  bloggers are influencers who already have followings of their own. Since Zupas started in Utah, I know some of them.

The bloggers write about their post on their own blog (example) and draw in their readers. They are brand ambassadors for the restaurant. I’m hoping to interview their marketing department.

Tonight I noticed that they are now selling a simple but nice cookbook with the best recipes from their blog. In other words, they made it into a product. A product that promotes their brand. Smart. This could make an ideal giveaway for a brand to give away to Facebook fans (a PDF version for new likes), new newsletter subscribers, or as a download on your blog.

The great thing about the cookbook is it features a profile of each blogger. The bloggers get copies to give away on their blogs and are of course helping to promote it. Don’t tell my sister but I bought her one for Christmas.

Related articles

• Local Business Marketing – Host a Blogger Event (newspapergrl.com)
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Mark Cuban is an Internet billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He has a new book out. It’s short at just under 100 pages and it’s cheap too, at $2.51. He hopes to sell a billion copies (he seems to think in billions). Imagine if he does sell a billion copies. I’m looking for the current numbers, and don’t know what Amazon keeps but even if he gets $1 a book, that’s one hell of a profit (over $1.5 billion).

You’ve heard of blog to book deals. The newest rendition of this is blog to ebook.  And you won’t need a book deal or publisher. All you need is some big success and a lot of friends. Cuban has over 330k friends on Facebook and 760k followers on Twitter.

The book is basically a compilation of Cuban’s blog posts you can read free on his blog. But that hasn’t stopped it from becoming an instant bestseller. It’s titled: “How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It.” I like this interview with Mark Cuban about his book and life.

I love this line, it just strikes me as so amazing: Of all your business ventures, the profit margin for this book is unmatched. Much of the book already had appeared as blog posts, and the production, promotion and distribution costs were negligible.

I love to use Twitter to find great headlines. Here’s a few about this story:

The Book World Is Changing: Mark Cuban Creates A Best Seller Out Of Some Blog Posts

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hopes for a slam dunk with his new e-book

I’m buying it to see how it differs (in format) from his blog and to read it in one concise place on my Kindle. But really I’m reading it to see what all the hoopla is about. And to learn.

Check out

Mark Cuban’s book on Amazon

In related news, the Justice Department is looking into if Apple is keeping prices for ebooks artificially high.

My business partner Ponn Sabra and I have known each other for several years. We are enthusiasts of online press releases to promote businesses.

We recently launched a new venture called Publicity Spark. We want to help small businesses get the spark of PR and social media for more traffic, search engine rankings and sales. Most of our products are downloadable guides because print books about this topic go out of date quickly!

We just started a 6-week blogging tour.  That simply means we will be guest blogging on a different blog each week for 6 weeks. We share tips from our ebooks and we’re giving out prizes.

How to Win

Each comment you make will give you another entry into that week’s prize drawings, the grand prize drawing AND will help your search engine optimization. There are many ways to enter each week, from answering the questions we post, to following Publicity Spark and our gracious hosts on Twitter, etc. Check out the contest posts on each blog for more info.

Tour Schedule

Here is the schedule of blogs we will be stopping at each week, make sure to follow along and comment on our posts for a chance to win free prizes!

August 1-5th: Kelly McCausey’s Solopreneur Expertise at SoloSmarts

August 8-12th: WorkingWahm: By Christina Lemmey

August 15-19th: Lesa Dale, Teen Biz Coach

August 22-26th: Social Marketing For Small Businesses at SocialBuzzClub

August 29-Sept 2: Small Business Expert Denise O’Berry’s Blog

September 5-9th: Glennette Goodbread at PremiumWebDesign

Thanks to the bloggers who have participated, we are honored.  If you would like to be a part of our future tours feel free to contact us as we will be planning another blog tour program soon!

Here’s a question I’ve been considering: are mom bloggers sacrificing their readership to earn money – essentially turning their blogs into advertisements?

I’ve had a small taste of the euphoria bloggers feel when they are approached by ad agencies and brands. It’s validating. It’s a rite of passage. It shows you’re being taken seriously. You are a brand. People want to work with you. It’s flattering to be powerful.

On the other side I’ve seen the euphoria from brands who think they have a free or low-effort marketing channel in mom bloggers. They might flippantly underestimate the power or the effort it takes to woo this crowd. They may think they can get the bloggers to do the social media work while they reap most of the benefit.

As as blogger I get the work or just time that goes into even responding to inquiries and deciding where to put your attention. If you’re a mom blogger or a woman with children, life isn’t always predictable. The more you get into paid work the more you have to juggle, because there are higher expectations (some brands ask for the world).

Take Eden Fantasy’s which sells adult products/toys. I find it ironic that blogs that started out being about kids and parenting have very unfamily friendly content. I’m amazed at the penetration with their blogger outreach (learn from them even if you don’t affiliate with them).

Many mom blogs have an ad for this company in their sidebar embedded with a certain keyword phrase [I don't want to mention] and maybe even an endorsement/testimonial too. I checked and the company ranks #3 for that term. I think for most bloggers this is selling out. Their readers probably don’t want details of their sex life. Does it really work for your audience? This blogger doesn’t find the company ethical (something you should check out before engaging with any brand).

At a recent bloggers conference for Utah bloggers Tauni Everet brought up this topic. She pointed out how there is so much clutter in sidebars and so many sponsored posts that blogs are becoming more like ads. The value of the blog to readers and advertisers drop as more brands are becoming savvy to this. It’s beginning to hurting readership (what made them so popular in the first place).

I’m not saying you cannot successfully review products or represent brands and still be true to yourself. Some set up blogs for that purpose (giveaway/review blogs). I try to find that balance on my other blog and tell myself never just accept something because it’s “free.” Free has no value for things I don’t want. Free takes up my time and could turn off my readers won’t care about.

What do you think – have mom bloggers sold out or do are they just becoming more savvy businesswomen?

What I’m thinking of is – are there better ways to create mutual benefit? In my next post I’ll discuss creative solutions.

There are some new blog networks popping up lately, each with their own slant. If you have an established blog and are looking for ways to make money with sponsors, then check these out.

Broadcast Bloggers

Broadcast Bloggers is the newest network. They are in beta and will go public on June 1st. They work with brands to connect with bloggers and it’s run by an advertising agency that has been around for a few years and has clients. The network is geared towards mom bloggers from what I can tell. They have several aspects to the business, but the best is the pay is decent – starting out at $60 per post. You get paid immediately, which is a great feature.

I see this as giving bloggers opportunities to partner with brands – not just for sponsored posts but also to do reviews or even in-person events or promotions. The pay depends on the project, but it could be much higher than just to write one blog post.

There are currently no jobs, they will be added this week or soon as the site gets closer to launch. You have to be referred by someone to join now, and I’m referring you here: bit.ly/lPC2eo

or use code 1068229

I signed up as an affiliate and the catch is they charge you $40 per month to join. Then you make money when other affiliates sign up or when bloggers who sign up get paid opportunities. It is 2-tier so you also get a commission on what your network brings in. This is the first paid affiliate program I’ve joined. There is also an education part including weekly webinars to help improve your blogging and monetize your blog. Truthfully it sounds a little like MLM (you have to be a customer to sell their products) but after talking with one of the founders and a few bloggers I decided to test it out.

UPDATE: So far very few jobs available despite promises – know that this site is definitely still in beta. Time will tell how this one shapes up.

Bucks2Blog

Bucks2Blog is another new network that pays bloggers to share their experiences or opinions on various topics. There are no reviews or contests, so it’s pretty straightforward. You apply, if your blog is accepted you are sent emails about campaigns. Campaigns can be in behalf of B2C businesses (consumer services/products) or B2B (business services/products). So it’s not just for mom bloggers or people who normally blog for brands. It’s more about conversations and it requires no or little research so it’s quick and easy.

You respond to campaigns you’re interested in and if picked, you’ll get the terms, including the pay ($20+). Go to their web site to sign up at www.Bucks2Blog.com. Right now there seems to be about 1 campaign per week. They look for quality blogs that get traffic and those who have a social media presence. Disclosure: I’m affiliated with this site.

GigCoin

GigCoin is a site that helps you find paid gigs either blogging or any number of social media contract work. Most pay $20 or more and you get paid immediately after your work is approved. The brands must deposit the money in their account (min. $100) to get started and the site keeps a small admin fee. You can also pitch people, explaining your expertise if they want to hire you. I’ve only used it to pay bloggers, not as a blogger. It has some kinks to work out but overall I thought it was ideal for defined gigs.

Unlike the other two networks, this one is more open. Anyone can see and apply for the jobs and they come from the clients directly, not GigCoin. Therefore it’s like a job posting site rather than a network. I found it an efficient way to get work done but the volume of applicants was a bit low (it is new). But I was happy with the work.

There are so many other ways to get paid to blog or to find sponsorships. Most require that you have an established blog. If none of these work for you there is always Google Adsense. A recent New York Times article features a blogger named Coupon Mom who makes HALF of her full-time income from Google ads. Not pretty in this case, but effective.

Question: What are your favorite blog networks/places to find blogging or social media jobs and why?

This is the 2nd year of Nigel’s Utah Blogger Contest (here’s the press release thanks to our sponsor Sarah at UtahNewsSource.com – she gets your press release in front of Utah media). Anyone can nominate anyone else for the contest and whoever gets the most votes wins. So it’s a community effort, which I like. I hope if you don’t live in Utah you’ll hold a contest in your state.

Why do I like this form of contest? Because it mixes the big names in with the lesser-known names. You get the food bloggers in with the car bloggers. We find no matter what we blog about we share the love of blogging. I know about half the finalists (I couldn’t be nominated because I was the co-planner).

We interviewed BenJoe and Chad after the event for the Web Marketing Weekly Show (now in its 40th episode!). Listen here: Web Marketing Weekly Show – Utah bloggers edition

Then there was an awards lunch for the winners and it was just the bloggers (and had the most amazing chocolate cheesecake and I’m not even a cheesecake fan). It was no pressure. Low key. It was fun to a few friends and meet new ones. I was sad Holly didn’t come but liked meeting Eric (PrideInUtah) and BenJoe (political blogger). We had the right and the left represented without even trying.

Here is the list of winners – Connor took first place.

Connor Boyack – Connor’s Connundrums
Holly Richardson  - Holly on the Hill
Chad Waite  - Daily Derbi
Nicole Warburton – Women Only
Eric Ethington – Pride in Utah
BenJoe Markland  - From Where I Sit
Stephanie Nielson – Nie Nie Dialogues (2^nd year in a row)
Jesse Stay – Stay N’ Alive (2^nd year in a row)
Phil Windley - Technometria
Misty Fowler – Saintless

It seems every year I meet a blogger who moves and inspires me. Last year it was Josh at The World’s Strongest Librarian. Stephanie’s blog has mades me cry since she was in a horrible plane crash. Her story has been on Oprah. There are burns all over her body including her beautiful face. She handles setbacks so honestly but optimistically and is so real. Her soul is so bright. They both astound me.  Then I feel honored to be a part of the dynamic community that bloggers create.

Congrats and thanks for blogging everyone, see you on Twitter!

Related articles

• Utah Natural History Museum Hosts Utah Bloggers
• Utah’s Top Blogger Award (lawafterthebar.wordpress.com)
• Pobanz Orthodontics Hosts Utah Bloggers

This is an excellent presentation from GasPedal’s Word of Mouth Supergenius class, “How to Work With Bloggers and Influencers,” by Virginia Miracle (what a name – almost as good as Ryan Money!). I get a lot of questions about this topic and I always say – that is an entire presentation of its own. Well, now you have that presentation.

First, I want to warn you that working with bloggers is high touch. We’re opinionated as a group and can be egotistical (who else would keep it up?). We’re very active – in the top 10-20% of people online who are actively engaged in blogging and often active on multiple social networking sites.

They [influencers] want to talk to you, the brand, directly not to your PR agency. “You cannot just outsource working with influencers. It does not work. It will fail.”

Just like with any campaign, press release or blog post you should start with defining what you want from the effort. What are your goals? Is it to promote an event or campaign? Get feedback? Increase visibility? Say thank you to your best customers?

Next define what the bloggers might want from the effort. Do they like working with brands? Some really want to, others have no interest. Are they open to your message? If you’re Kraft and they are Whole Foods devotees it might not be a good match. This is really time consuming – there are tools to help but unless it’s a group you know well (for instance I know a lot of Utah bloggers) then it’s tough. The good news is if you find one you’ll often be able to find another (we hang out together). You find one blogger who fits and you can follow the links in their sidebar to their friends. Or look (do a targeted search on search.twitter.com) to see who they write to on Facebook or Twitter.

What can you offer them? It can be anything from fame to recognition with their peers (I think these are often overlooked as motivators). It may be a giveaway or free product. Some bloggers just want to be paid (this can evolve over time as a blogger has gotten more popular).

Remember that even though writing may be what we love to do, it takes time to write a good post. For example, my previous post took over 2 hours and I could’ve written for another 2 hours. It takes a lot of mental effort to write. If you add photos, video, etc. it could even take more. If you ask them to review your book, that is several hours of work to read, think about and write about your book. Even as an author I’m aware of what I’m asking when I request a review so I am very grateful when people actually take the time. I will link to them, comment, put it on my site, etc.

Be aware that this is a long-term relationship with a lot of give and take along the way. If you’re not up for that just pay for what you need (consulting, a post, a product review, advertising, etc).

Here’s the presentation:

How to Work With Bloggers and Influencers — presented by Virginia Miracle from GasPedal on Vimeo.

I was looking over my blog stats for the year – wow when I got spammed my traffic was hurt and it has never recovered. Also, Twitter has taken the place of blogging for me (not sure if that’s a good thing). When I don’t blog as often my traffic drops dramatically.

Here’s why I think blogging is still important – because blogs are referral engines. In fact, Companies with blogs generate 67% more referrals online than those w/o blogs according to @Hubspot research.

Speaking of blogs as referral engines, not only your own blog, but links from other people’s blogs are. Especially from influencers. Case in point: I got more visits to my web site from one buried mention of my blog on the Pioneer Woman blog than I did all year from Twitter (with several thousand followers and active participation). Our audiences are so different I’m not sure I got any repeat visitors from the link, but it illustrates the point.

There are several blogs who have sent me a lot of traffic – and most are people I know in real life or locals (live in Utah). This underscores how important networking with people locally is. Personal relationships matter A LOT. Unless you travel and go to conferences meeting people where you live is important. I got away from that at first and now as my topics are more competitive I try to make it more focused on Utah again where its less crowded.

Here’s my theory on Twitter: it’s like Google News, people scan the headlines but rarely click through. With my audience I notice people don’t click through to read my posts on Twitter, they keep it on Twitter. Do you notice that? There is a huge range in this from my experimenting with Sponsored Tweets.

Google organic searches are my #1 referral source and search engines send me the most traffic overall. This validates what I teach about SEO and I’m not trying to rank for keywords. I didn’t have products to sell. I write because I want to and I’m more focused on writing than keywords. In other words it’s more pleasure than business.

Random Facts about my Blog Traffic

• I get a lot more traffic from StumbleUpon than I expected.

• Bing is in the top 10 referrers and so is Facebook.

• Yahoo is not far behind and after that AOL.

• I’m surprised that Blogcatalog gives me that much traffic.

• # of referrals from ezinearticles: 13

What are the main sources of traffic for your blog?

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When I coach clients at OrangeSoda one of the things I tell them is to be specific. A part of that advice is to use a descriptive title for your blog post. Many times people use either clever or generic titles. General titles are boring. Clever titles often lose people. Read the title of your blog post to yourself. If it could apply to almost any topic or any business, then you need to re-write it.

Search engines don’t take people to the home page of your blog every time. They deliver information out of context. This is good because if someone is searching for a hotel in Connecticut to spend Valentine’s Day then your blog post might pop up. They type in “city, Connecticut hotel” and hopefully your blog post shows up high on the list, they find you and give you a call. I’ve seen blog posts about a business come up higher than the official web site for the business.

Each blog post is its own entry into search engines — its own web page. Some people write as if we know who they are and what they do. Chances are we don’t. And that we don’t care enough to find out (unless we have or you give us a reason to).

Why is it important to use descriptive blog post titles?

• A descriptive blog post title is good for SEO.
  Search engines try to categorize information for searchers who are looking for information. If your title is too vague then a search engine may not know what it’s about. They might index it incorrectly (or not at all). The title of your blog post is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT aspects of blogging when it comes to SEO. Don’t ruin the chance to get more targeted information into search engines by writing a descriptive title to your blog posts.
• A descriptive blog post title tells the reader what they are going to learn about.
  Readers want to know what they’re getting and make split second decisions on what to read. If you make them think too hard then you’ve probably lost them. Don’t just tell us what it’s about – sell it a little. Your goal is to make people want to keep reading. The more they read the higher the chances are that they will care or trust you enough to call you, comment, or participate in some way. And if they do that, chances are higher that they’ll become a customer, regular reader, etc.
• A descriptive blog post title helps people.
  When you write descriptive blog post titles it helps people get what they are looking for. They appreciate that. Most likely they are not reading your blog post, they are skimming over it to see if there’s any reason for them to read more. If you tell them what they’re going to get up front, they can judge if they found what they were looking for. Don’t make us hunt for it. Cut down on frustration and time people must spend to figure out what your blog post is about by saying it up front in the title.

Example of a Vague Blog Post Title:

This blog post is titled: It’s Not Too Late!

If you read that you’re first question is – not too late for what? To learn to play the violin? To tell that special someone we love them? To lose 20 lbs. before the next class reunion?

After reading further I found out that the blog is a local business – a hotel. It’s based in Connecticut and it’s called Interlaken – at least that’s what I think. Nothing on the blog really tells me who they are – I’m unsure if the blog is about things you can do in a certain city or the name of the hotel. But I’ll assume it’s the name of the hotel.

The first paragraph is vague too: Valentine’s weekend is here, and we do have a few rooms still available, so no worries – just give us a call and we can still take care of you!  (1-800-222-2909).

New Version of the Blog Post

Here’s the new title: It’s Not Too Late to Plan a Romantic Valentine’s Day Getaway in __ Connecticut

Valentine’s weekend is almost here. If you live near by or are visiting (city name) Connecticut we invite you to stop by the Interlaken hotel. Not only do we still have some rooms available, we have many Valentine’s Day packages for a last minute getaway. Surprise the person you love, celebrate and spend time together. Just give us a call — and we will take care of you!  (1-800-222-2909).

P.S. My next tip would be – use paragraphs in your blog posts! and Links! But that’s another blogging tip. This one is just about the title.

Have any examples of great blog post titles? Please put them in the comments (along with a link).