Jeremy Blanton – Page 10

What Inspires Your Blog Content?

Coming up with ideas for blog content on a regular basis can be rather difficult for many people. It’s one of the biggest objections I hear whenever I speak on blogging. How do you think up new stuff to write about that isn’t just a repeat of something you have already done?

During this month long challenge of 21 blog posts in 21 business days, I’ve found myself at times even pondering what to write on next. But, what I have come to the conclusion is that by using one of the four options below to inspire content for your blog, you should almost always have a wealth of content available. These are the four areas I turn to when I am trying to think of something to write about:

1. Content written by others. No, I don’t mean go copy & paste something you liked that was written by someone else. That’s called plagiarism. What I mean is go out & read content written by others in your industry. You will come across posts that you like that you can then write in your own words or make it applicable to your area.

Another thing I do with these posts written by others on a rather regular basis is use it as a underlying theme to a post. I may write what I liked or didn’t like about the other person’s post. Or I may write a blog post why I agree or disagree with a concept/idea that they shared. This is a great source of content for your blog, and can also help you learn things from time to time.

2. New Products. No matter what type of business or blog you run, there is always something new coming to that industry. Either some new piece of technology comes about or you find something that you really enjoy implementing into your business. When you find these things, they can make some really great topics for blog posts. People love learning about new things and how they might be able to use it to make their job easier. I’ve written numerous posts about things I use when building a custom WordPress site for a client and have received many comments thanking me for providing help to others.

3. Past Experiences. Getting content ideas from here can be a blessing or a curse depending on what you pick to write about. In the past I have shared funny stories of working with clients, but some that share stories can end up getting into hot water by sharing things that they probably shouldn’t have. You have to always remember to use a good level of discretion when writing content for your website as it will live on the internet forever.

But, on the other hand sharing things you have experienced and had to do in the past to reach a level of success or accomplishment can make great content for your blog.

4. Your Inbox. This last area is probably my biggest secret weapon for new blog content. Every day I receive anywhere from 10-20 emails from clients of past, current, and potential regarding all types of topics. What I realized a few years ago was that if I was receiving the same question on a regular basis from those I’m connected to, how many other thousands of people were asking the same question and looking for an answer. The video tutorials alone that I have created to answer questions related to WordPress have generated well over 3,000 views.

These are the ways I come up with content for my blog. What about you? What is your inspiration for your blog topics?

Can You Spot A Fake Facebook Profile?

Facebook, Facebook For Business

Facebook usually does a good job at catching spam/fake profiles, but from time to time profiles do slip through the cracks and get connected to tons of people. Here’s one fake profile I’ve found on Facebook and how I was able to confirm the photo was not a real person:

Have you ever encountered a fake profile on Facebook?

Are Quoted Graphics Turning Facebook Into MySpace?

Facebook, Facebook For Business, Social Media Advisors

I am as much a Facebook Junkie as the next, but over the past few months I have found myself spending less and less time in the actual stream and more in private Facebook groups. This is because I have found specific private groups to be much more valuable to my business than just my public news stream. Last night however, I took some time to read through the stream of my friends and when I did, I kept coming across quoted images or graphics similar to the one above.

Now, I understand why people make these, but I really don’t see any value in them for a person sharing it. The reason people create these is due to the fact that Facebook’s edgerank algorithm places more emphasis on photos as that is overwhelmingly the most popular thing for people to view, comment & share on Facebook. This was made obvious to me by the incredible popularity a photo of my daughter received the other day. (97 likes & 43 comments & growing) So, marketers learned that if they create quotes into an image instead of just plain text update it is more likely to be viewed by people and receive interactions and popularity they want.

But, what I have noticed lately that these quoted images are taking over the Facebook stream. They get thousands of shares, comments, & likes. But, they go against everything that Facebook was designed to do. Facebook was created to give people a place to share images of each other & connect with people you know. Unfortunately marketers have come in and are ruining this concept with these images.

I may be alone on this, but I feel like this new trend is making Facebook feel a little bit like MySpace where people spammed your comments with stupid images and shared things they found on another profile and thought was cute or funny. Luckily, Facebook doesn’t allow animated GIF’s (yet) so we don’t have to worry about the sparkling princess fairy just yet.

What do you think? Do you feel these new quotes are junking up the Facebook stream and making it feel a little bit like MySpace?

What Video Gear Do We Need?

Video

As many know by now, I have a fond love for video and have been using it more and more in my business. With the increasing importance of using video I’ve been asked more and more to speak on video while traveling the country. Inevitably, the one question that comes out during the presentation is what type of gear should I be using to create these videos.

Here’s a quick video run down of what I use:

If you are interested in getting more information on any of the things I mentioned, you can find the details on my video gear page.

Are You Trying To Create Social Sales Or Social Trust

Social Media Advisors

Over the past few days I’ve been doing a lot more reflecting on my business and what has helped to make it is today. As I have thought about my successes over the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that these are not caused by the knowledge or skills I possess. It’s not from 13,000+ fans I’ve connected with on Twitter. Nor the thousands on Facebook. While those things are nice, they don’t make people hire me to speak or ask me to build them a custom WordPress site.

What I realized is that people hire me because they have formed a level of trust with me. This revelation came to me the other day as I thought about the amazing time I had this past week in Atlanta, GA at the RETSO conference. It was a fun time spent with friends & family, but what made the trip so enjoyable was my good friend Maura who lives there and her assistance with what to do when not at the conference. Maura is a real estate agent in the area that knows what is happening in her community. She also runs a really great site called 365 Atlanta where Maura shares great information on places, events, & things to do in the Atlanta area.

Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to know Maura somewhat well through various conferences and social media platforms. In fact, the past two years I was invited to an amazingly delicious dinner held at her house before RETSO because of the connection we have made online. I know that Maura wouldn’t just randomly invite me to her house if she didn’t trust the connection we made online first.

In the past when attending RETSO, I would just go wherever to eat and do whatever was close by for entertainment because I didn’t know the area. Sometimes I would have OK experiences, but most the time it ended up in disaster. To be completely honest, the top experience was visiting a Dave & Busters once for Gahlord’s Edamame. However, this year I decided to take a different approach based on the trust I have formed in Maura through our interactions on social networks and her blog. Whenever it came time for dinner or to go do something, I simply asked Maura and she would quickly recommend a place.

She told me before the event even began that she had made reservations for us all on Friday night for a dinner downtown. Now, the conference is a good 30 minutes away and as we drove to downtown Atlanta, I did start to wonder why we were going so far away just to eat a meal. Until I placed the first bite of food into my mouth. Maura recommended us going to a restaurant called Rosebud which is owned by chef Ron Eyester and the food was out of this world delicious. I had fantastic tastes of everything from pimento cheese spread, mouthwatering calamari, and so much more.

While I could have eaten anywhere else along the way or much closer to our conference, I went with Maura’s choice though because of past good experiences and the trust I’ve formed from her past successful recommendations. Now, whenever someone mentions Atlanta & housing, I immediately think of Maura. She knows her area and people form a trust in her because she is a regular person online just trying to help others. What’s even more amazing, is that once someone trusts her, they are more willing to work with her and trust her with not just their bellies, but also their money. She has had great success with her real estate career all from her 365 Atlanta site that doesn’t even really talk about real estate.

I’ve found this to be the same in my business. I don’t really do a lot of selling across the social networks. Very rarely do I even make mention to my business on Twitter, Facebook, or other social networks. Instead I try to spend more time helping others and sharing all I know with others openly. On Twitter, over 75% of the 29,000 tweets I’ve sent, are me having conversations with others or promoting them, not me broadcasting stuff. On Facebook, I find myself spending most of my time now in private or closed tech support groups interacting with others and helping them with whatever they need. I share openly my skills and help whenever possible.

By simply being my normal self and not focusing on a sale, it has brought my business tremendous success. When someone contacts me about hiring my services, they don’t question my ability to do the job. They already know me well enough through the various social networks or my blog to just trust me. When I mention a price or my rates, they don’t second guess them, they already know enough about me to simply agree and hire me if it fits their budget.

If I spent all day trying to just make sales and not be social across the different platforms, people would no longer trust me. Instead they would start to completely ignore every single thing I posted in fear of being sold to. I’d go from being a good friend to just noise that gets ignored.

So before you send your next tweet or next Facebook status update, ask yourself this: How will this update build more trust with those I am connected with?

The Art of Uni-Tasking

Social Media Advisors

This past week I was in Atlanta, GA for a real estate tech conference where I got the honor of hearing my friend Matthew Shadbolt deliver a very powerful presentation on how social media is ruining us. He shared about the addictions people are forming to the instant gratification and recognition they receive on social networks like Twitter & Facebook. The mentions, likes & comments we receive release a level of oxytocin that makes us feel better. Once a person starts to receive some, it becomes even more addicting.

It gets to the point where people spend hours at a time bouncing from one social network to another trying to find another dose. Not only is the addiction a bad thing, but it has also caused more and more people to do more multitasking each and every day. No longer are we just focusing on our duties for our job, but we also splitting our time that should be spent working on a task on Facebook updates, Twitter statuses, and all other types of social networks.

While I used to believe that by multitasking I was accomplishing more. I also used to brag at how well I could do it and how I could do so many things at once. But what Matthew shared in his presentation changed my whole thinking. No longer am I going to try & multitask. Instead, I’ve implemented a new work into my daily routine called uni-tasking.

To me, uni-tasking means I will no longer keep my inbox, Facebook, Twitter, iMovie and several other networks/programs open at the same time and bounce from one to another. Instead, I am going to only do one at a time and shut the other networks off.

On Monday I tested this theory to see how it would work. I shut everything off but my inbox. I took the next three hours and spent just the time on email. What I noticed is that I was able to respond to everything I need and seemed to be much more focused on it while doing so. I also found I didn’t miss the likes, mentions and praises that the social networks provide. I was then able to move on to another task without having to wonder if everything was finished or not. I found myself more productive than I’ve been in weeks and had everything done to then spend time with family.

So in closing, this uni-tasking might just be the best thing I implement into my business in a long time. If you don’t believe me, give it a try and see if you receive the same results. My guess is you will be amazed at what you can accomplish by trying to just do one thing at a time.