17 Mar
5 Tips for Writing Web Content
by Jannice Almansur -
I came across this article on one of my favorite blogs, and wanted to share it with my clients and readers. The post addresses a topic that is something that I have had countless conversations about with you all.
In fact it was the topic of a recent speech that I gave at my Toastmasters' club. The introduction went something like this..."I find myself in constant battle with my clients trying to get them to commit, execute and follow-through on writing blog content for their sites. Some of the most common oppositions are that they do not have time, they are not writers, they sell widgets and widgets are not sexy or interesting enough to write about....and so on and so on. Oh yea, and my all time favorite objection "silence"! The phone line goes quiet and I can only imagine their glazed over expressions or the “deer in the headlights” look of utter fear. Needless to say no matter how I try, they are just are not getting it." ; Good evening fellow Toastmasters, friends and guest...
The speech was one of my typical attempts to provide valuable information, so I know that everyone gets my point or I at least hope that you all get that having a content rich blog and articles hosted on your own website domain is one of the most superior search engine optimization (SEO), Website Copywriting, Keyword Rich website content development strategies for small business owners...yada, yada, yada, and so on and so on...ok so enough already...
Here is an article that so eloquently addresses this issue and specifically the issue of "sell widgets and widgets are not sexy or interesting enough to write about". I would love to hear your feedback... Enjoy!
5 Content Strategies for Boring Brands
“If people aren’t talking about you, they’re not talking about you for a reason. And the reason isn’t that they dislike you. They’re not talking about you because you’re boring.” ~ Seth Godin
The formidable challenge for marketers of boring brands is that you have to present content that is remarkable and interesting even when your product—on the face of it—is not.
So, how should you get people to take interest in a boring brand?
The key is in distinctive presentation. Every brand has a unique story about its origin, its people and its experience. The solution is to find an authentic theme, apply creative imagination and tell your story in a way that will attract and retain people’s attention. What was widely perceived to be boring could become inspiring or at least interesting to a group of people.
Let’s face it. Boring products solve legitimate problems. QuickBooks, toilet paper and dentures fulfill a need just as much as, if not more than, smart phones, cool music and fashionable clothes. If your brand is one that solves a problem but doesn’t easily spark the imagination, here are five strategies you can use to attract attention.
Come to the rescue
Just like good brands, good content solves problems. Boring brands have the same opportunity as everyone to share information that improves customers’ lives or helps them to do their jobs better.
Roberts and Durkee knows this. In 2008, this run-of-the-mill law firm used content marketing to become the de facto consumer advocate for victims of the Chinese drywall problem that hit the US market toward the middle of the decade.
They created a website/blog called chinesedrywallproblem.com to help thousands of Florida homeowners whose homes were built with toxic drywall. The website provided pertinent information such as how to identify contaminated drywall, the toxins’ health implications, and the victims’ legal rights. This content strategy established Roberts and Durkee as the expert in Chinese drywall problems and resulted in tremendous business opportunities for the firm.
To create content that solves problems, ask yourself:
- What kinds of emergencies are happening in my community?
- Are there particular groups in need of someone to speak up for them?
- How can I create content that helps them resolve these problems?
Reach out to your community
If your product does not generate excitement, create content that showcases your readers’ lifestyles, interests and passions instead. Focus your content on the consumer rather than the product and encourage conversations that resonate with your community.
Procter & Gamble – the makers of Gillette razors, Head & Shoulders shampoo and other everyday brands – createdManOfTheHouse.com as “the real man’s magazine,” packed with compelling advice on guy-to-guy topics such as money, careers, gadgets, parenting and, of course, sex.
The site specifically targets young dads and connects with them via Facebook and Twitter as well. By December 2010, manofthehouse.com attracted over half a million unique visitors per month.
To reach your community with your content, ask yourself:
- Who do I want to attract?
- What is their lifestyle?
- What are their interests and preferences?
- How can I provide a forum for them to discuss these issues in a conversational, entertaining fashion?
Do something completely unexpected
No matter what kind of product or service you offer, there’s no reason for a boring presentation. Any product can be showcased in a way that is interesting, appealing, even surprising!
Agilent Technologies produces measurement instruments that help scientists, researchers and engineers measure variables in chemical analysis, life sciences and electronics. Ho hum, right? On the contrary.
Going completely against type, Agilent resisted the typical dry technicalities in favor of the truly unexpected: a puppet show. The highly engaging Agilent Puppet Chemistry is so far removed from the company’s brand image, it immediately captures interest.
Want to go against the grain?
Brainstorm a list of adjectives that describe your company and then research their opposites. For example if your organization has a serious, demanding and dull environment, you could research ideas that are entertaining, relaxing and fresh. Then create a mix of content that matches those ideas and presents your company in a totally unexpected way.
Play to your strengths
A lot of people equate content with writing. But writing (blogs, e-books, white papers, books, etc.) is just one way to create content – and it’s not for everyone.
No one knows this better than Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of Wine Library TV. Gary, by his own admission, couldn’t write to save his life. So he doesn’t. He video blogs…and he does it extremely well.
His very informal yet highly energetic style, frequently described as an unpretentious, gonzo approach to wine appreciation, offers a stark contrast to everyone else’s dry, conservative approach to wine culture. Most wine bloggers simply publish a written article and then wait for visitors to subscribe. Gary, on the other hand, loves the camera, is passionate about wine and comes across like a familiar dinner guest, relaxing in your living room.
To play to your own strengths, ask yourself:
- How do you prefer to express yourself? If you enjoy being in front of the camera, try video blogging and inject your own personality into the content. If you prefer to look people in the eye and feed off of their energy, speaking engagements or training opportunities might be your vehicle.
- Do people easily recognize your gifts or talents? Perhaps you’ve been told that you have a ‘golden voice’ or a ‘way with words.’ Maybe they’re onto something. Explore your talents and find a complementary outlet to express them.
Encourage people to talk…about anything
Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research Analyst and co-author of Groundswell, recommends that boring brands encourage people to talk–even if it isn’t about the brand itself. By borrowing a relevant topic and encouraging conversations about it, boring brands become part of the conversation.
Social media presents the perfect opportunity to apply this “borrowed relevance,” as Bernoff calls it, because conversations are already taking place there that are not product-centric, pushy or self-promotional.
A good example is Liberty Tax, a tax service franchise (yawn)…with a Facebook audience of over 6,000 people! A quick look at their Wall reveals how they use a variety of tactics to engage their customers and create a lively atmosphere. They discuss Groupon deals, hold photo contests, show appreciation to different members of the community (teachers, policemen and firefighters, etc.), and so on. They also make taxes fun (no, really!) by giving away free tax apps, and offering advice and tips on little-known tax credits, refunds, etc.
Without a doubt, distinctive presentation is the key to a boring brand’s problems. But it is not without its stresses. Breaking away from the comfort zone is risky and may open you up to criticism. I think Barry Gibbons, former CEO of Burger King, hit the nail on the head when he said: “Ho-hum. We swim in an ocean of ho-hum, and I’m going to fight it. I’m going to die fighting it.” If Burger King recognizes the importance of distinction, I think lesser-known brands ought to be taking notes.
Over to you: Are you fighting against being boring? What strategies have you employed?
Redberry Designs partners with you to make sure that the findability of your online business is pushed up to the top search engine ranking position. Contact our team to get your project started today! Click Here to Get a Quote Now!
About the Author: Jannice Boyd Almansur (http://www.jannice.info/) is Managing Director of Redberry Atlanta Website Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business content marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the our BerryPatch Blog at http://www.redberrydesigns.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=419 and Redberry Atlanta Website Design website at http://www.redberryatlantawebsitedesign.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.
03 Mar
Guaranteed strategy to increase your website rankings.
by Shafik Mansur -
A blog attracts both new visitors and search engines to your site. Providing fresh content on your blog can increase the frequency of search engine spider visits and this promotes the ranking of your site in search results as an authoritative web site. The higher your site ranks in searches, the more likely qualified potential customers are to visit it and make a purchase or engage your services. Your blog simply makes your website easier to find.
Your content in the blog is there to attract, acquire and engage customers. Here is a guaranteed approach to using keywords properly to increase search engine rankings of your website.
Your blog posts should not only be relevant to your business’ products, services or industry, they should make ample use of the important keywords that people associate with your business. A keyword is a word or phrase that relates to your niche. These keywords are used to search for your business on the internet. Google, for example, even provides tools to allow you to determine the best keywords related to your products or services.
These words should then be generously incorporated into your blog posts in a natural density that is both readable and logical. The subjects of your blog posts can be taken directly from your top keywords. In addition, by working your location or business name into the blog post text, this will provide clear associations of your keywords to your location and/or business to the search engines.
Avoid over use of keywords by writing for humans. The complex algorithms that search engines use to rank sites have evolved to the point that simple keyword stuffing is considered an unethical practice because what you actually do is use the keyword in question throughout the text suspiciously often. Having in mind that the recommended keyword density is from 3 to 7%, anything above this, say 10% density starts to look very much like keyword stuffing and it is likely that will not get unnoticed by search engines. A text with 10% keyword density can hardly make sense, if read by a human. Google some time ago imposed a penalty for web pages that are keyword-stuffed and over-optimized in general; will result in lowered rankings. As long as your blog posts are written for humans to read and understand, then you should have little concern over possible ranking penalties for using keywords in your posts. A good rule though is to keep your keyword density around 2%. That percentage is for each keyword or phrase, not for all the keywords you might have in that post. If your keyword density is too high it can appear to the search engines that you are keyword stuffing. With the Google keyword tool, you can enter a few key phrases from your blog post and find out which terms are being searched, then nudge your post in that direction … go on, try it. It’s fun. There also is a tutorial to help you figure out how to use this tool and you can find it here.
Redberry Designs partners with you to make sure that the findability of your online business is pushed up to the top search engine ranking position. Contact our team to get your project started today! Click Here to Get a Quote Now!
About the Author: Shafik Mansur is CEO and Director of Marketing of Redberry Services Redberry Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business conversational marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the Redberry Services Redberry Designs website at http://www.redberryservices.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.
30 Jul
HOW TO: Share your content in real-time
by Jannice Almansur -
Adapted from: an article written by Liz Metcalfe and adapted from an original piece from Microsoft Home Magazine.Sharing a great story, resource, tip or how to article with your clients and community has never been easier.
by Jannice Almansur
Thanks to a growing number of blogging, photo-sharing, and social networking websites, such as Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Your Own Blog on Your Own Redberry Online Business Solution website, clients, prospects, friends and family no longer have to wait until you get home to hear about your tips and resources. Video on creating blogs on Redberry Design...
Free and easy
Most social networking sites are free and easy to use. Some, such as Facebook and Twitter, enable you to tell your friends what you're doing, Facebook allows up to 200 photos per album and unlimited number of albums, and you can blog about your adventures. Your status is instantly shared on your wall to let friends know you've recently updated your space.Others, such as Flickr, Picasa, Panoramio, and Photobucket, specialize in hosting photo or video galleries and slide shows. Your Redberry website allows you to post unlimited amount of video via embed codes. This is another great way to post your photos, share stories, and keep everyone up-to-date on your activities. Users can have multiple blogs and journals, upload unlimited photos, and pass on their individual URL to friends who can check on their site any time they want via RSS feeds.
"The quickness and ease is excellent," says Shafik Mansur, whose Over In Noonday personal blog is a great way for him to share his eclectic tastes on many topics from food, photography to music and the local history of the Noonday area. "It changes the prospective," he says. "People have already seen where you've been and the conversation (when you see them next) starts from that."
User-friendly
When you're on the road, traveling through different countries or soaking up the sun or just conducting your daily errands and client appointments, it has become common for you to take tons of photos and then share them with clients, friends and family. On these user friendly sharing sites technical issues are uncommon and are so user-friendly, you don't need to be a computer whiz to use them.
What you will need:
- A digital camera or camera phone
- A computer (either your own laptop, or a computer located in a hotel, library, cyber café, any computer with internet access—the options are increasing daily)
- A media card reader, if your laptop doesn't have one
- You might also want to keep a car battery charger and AC adaptor for your charger, if you use rechargeable batteries.
There are also apps that allow you to share your text and photo posts from cell phones directly to Facebook,Twitter and other social media sites. Facebook mobile is a valuable resource to share post to other websites or even directly to your own. Use this link to learn more about Facebook Mobile. Windows Live also allows you to e-send blog entries and photos right from your cell phone to your Redberry Designs website blog address, from anywhere in the world where your phone has Internet access. Your friends and family just have to check your Windows Live Space to see exactly what you're up to—as you're doing it!
It can be helpful to have a Wi-Fi phone for easy access to the Web when you can't get to an Internet café. I had a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ camera phone with Wi-Fi capability that allowed me to access the Internet anywhere I could find a wireless signal. During my trip to Europe, I even found free Wi-Fi hotspots at inexpensive hostels.
Photo-editing on the fly
If you want to modify images, there's a wide range of photo-editing software to choose from. Windows Photo Gallery comes free with the Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems. Its Auto Adjust feature can automatically lighten and sharpen a too-dark photograph with just one click. You can also fix red eye, crop photos, and change color photos to beautiful black and whites—with just a few clicks of your mouse.
If the computer you're using doesn't have Windows 7 or Windows Vista installed, you can also use online photo-editing services at sites like Phixr, GIFworks, or Picnik to make quick changes. The Microsoft Professional Photography site is an excellent source for additional information.
Microsoft Research has been working on some cutting-edge editing software that takes your photography to the next level. Microsoft Photosynth transforms regular digital photos into three-dimensional, 360-degree experiences that change the way you experience and share photos. Photo collages celebrate important events and themes, and Microsoft AutoCollage lets you create a unique memento to print or e–mail to your family and friends.
Where to find wireless access
Web access is available pretty well everywhere these days. Most hotels and cruise ships offer wireless services that allow you to access the Internet from a laptop in your room. If you don't want to pack your laptop, many provide Internet facilities with computers.
Free Wi-Fi is available at many cafés and some restaurants, including many Starbucks and McDonald's locations. If your laptop has a wireless card, just click your wireless icon and ask for a display of available wireless networks. You can find a directory of free Wi-Fi locations on the Wi-Fi FreeSpot Web site. While Wi-Fi hotspots provide a valuable service, it's important to keep security in mind when accessing any Wi-Fi network. Wireless networks range from paid services, such as T-Mobile or Boingo, to free connections at your local coffee shop or library, but they all have one thing in common—they're all open networks that are vulnerable to security breaches. And that means it's up to you to protect the data on your PC. Get 7 tips for working securely from wireless hotspots.
On my road trips, I favored full-out Internet facilities, which provided computers and even webcams. Full-size keyboards are definitely more comfortable than cell phone keyboards. Sites like EasyInternetCafé provide links to Internet cafes in several cities. Simply search for your city and get a map and contact info for the closest café.
About the Author: Jannice Boyd Almansur is CEO and Managing Director of Redberry Services and Redberry Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business conversational marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the Redberry Services or Redberry Designs website at http://www.redberryservices.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.
17 Jul
Qualities of A Great About Page for Your Blog
by Jannice Almansur -
1. Has your truly unique personality all over it
2. Tells your story in an engaging way
3. Accurately sets your readers expectations
Your “About” page should highlight your distinct personality, share a quick story or two about yourself and what readers can expect in the future from your updates.
What is an “About Page”?
An ”About Page” is a single page of the blog devoted to telling readers a little bit about yourself and the topics you’ll be covering on your blog.
Your “About Page” gives readers a contextual reference point and quickly tells them if this a topic that they will enjoy learning more and engaging with you on. This way readers make a choice to participate or not.
The key is finding your voice! When you tell your story you also need to bring the reader along. Just think about it this way. The stories that really get your attention are those told in an interesting way. This can be challenging when writing, but through the use of vividly robust words and descriptions you can make your stories come alive and resonate with the reader.
Share your back-story!
Your readers will appreciate learning about why you took to blogging in the first place. So don’t hold back tell your unique story and let them see behind the curtain.
Happy Blogging!
12 Jan
A few words about Redberry Services
Redberry Services is an agency built out of a passion for making our clients the best that they can be. We are not a template mill nor are we driven by self promotion. We do not believe in the me, me, me marketing that alot of folks practice in the online social media marketing space.
We are small, but we are equally very high touch. We care too much about getting it right to worry about fads. The work matters to us and we are not strangers to working hard for our clients. We do the heavy lifting so that you can do your core business. Our folks don't fit the mold; we are creating our own way each day. We're thinkers driven by action. We are what every small business owner needs in order to compete. Our agency specializes in research, discovery, action, and implementation. We are not trying to change you only shine a bright light on your positive features. Like any lover of art would, we are bringing to bear the creativity; technology and strategic marketing supported by a world class platform all delivered in a complete partnership driven online business solution.
www.RedberryServices.com | www.RedberryDesigns.com
Why We Blog?
Simply because we have so much to say...We are discovering so much new information every day, that even we find it hard to keep up with it all. So we know that our clients will find the resources we provide here helpful in making sense of it all. We specialize in working with small business owners, who have an overwhelming need for high quality professional marketing and branding solutions that are budget friendly.
Every day we monitor the many channels out there with excellent and valuable content, then consolidate the best of these messages and break them down into easily understandable tips, resources and how-tos. So when we say that we do the heavy lifting for you, this is an example of what we are talking about. Our value to our clients, and really to anyone that comes in contact with us is our ability to listen, comprehend, quickly find resources that support your needs and to act as a guide in implementation. Our gift to ourselves is being a gift to others. Here in the "Berry Patch" blog we share resources and information on everything from marketing, branding, online presence development and management, social media, and website strategies that are uniquely well suited for small businesses.
Why We are in Business?
Shafik Mansur is my husband and business partner. We started this agency out of a desire to make a difference in and to connect with our local area. He has always had an excellent eye for new trends in art, music and is a historian with a love of great music and languages. I, on the other hand, tend to be a consummate workaholic. I truly get excited by creating a great plan, laying out a project and strategic plan. It may sound a little odd to others, but to each his own. Our concept for Redberry Designs and Redberry Services is all-about providing a comprehensive solution for small businesses. In many ways we want to provide for our clients the affordable high quality solutions that we had wished were available to us as a small business owners.
So here we have combined a solution that takes into consideration branding, marketing and providing more that just a website, but more so a full service hosting platform with a powerful completely integrated database, content management, eCommerce and email marketing solution. We give you as a small business operator the powerful tools to level the playing field, allowing you to compete with the big guys...We put you back in control of creating lasting success!
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