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Greetings!
 Spring has arrived in Maine and for the past
several days it has felt more like summer! I went to Florida on vacation with
my family for school vacation, but I was happy to come back to Maine where I
cherish the changing of the seasons.
In this week's issue we continue our social
media series from NMC's account executives with a piece by Kevin Gove. Kevin is
a talented and thoughtful writer. He is also a sports enthusiast and a new dad. Thanks, Kevin, for your piece on blogging and congratulations on the birth of
your new boy, who will be playing Little League Baseball before you know
it!
Back to our topic for the week...blogs. A blog is really just a website that gets
updated regularly. It allows a person or an organization to communicate a brand
story with articles, stories, personal opinions and observations. If you
haven't already started blogging, we encourage you to think about it. You can start by looking at other blogs and
participating in the dialogue by leaving comments. That's the spirit of social
media...participating in the worldwide dialogue through social communities
online. It has opened up new worlds of opportunities for us to be connected
with others who have similar interests and missions.
Have a great week, www.marshallpr.com |
Tips for Successful Blogging
By Kevin Gove, Account Executive at Nancy
Marshall Communications
 In the ever-evolving world of social media, the blog is the rock solid veteran that continues to be a popular and effective
vehicle for sharing information, photos and video.
The text-based blog doesn't have the posting
limitations of Twitter or the busyness of Facebook. At NMC, we help our website
and public relations clients integrate blogging into their overall communications
program. Here are some tips to keeping a blog that is read and referred to
regularly.
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Technorati's 2009 State of the Blogosphere Report found that 82% of respondents post photos to their blog and nearly 50%
post video. Whenever possible, still and moving pictures should be used to illustrate
the words of a blog post. Photos and videos that can be watched in the body of
a post help extend a visitor's time on your blog and give them another reason to
comment or share the post.
- Allow
comments, but use a filter. People naturally want to share their opinions on
blog posts whether positive or negative. It's important to allow fans of your
company or product to share their enthusiasm or suggestions, but comments
should be screened to weed out offensive or libelous responses, and to stop blog
spam from showing up.
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Post
regularly to be read regularly. People subscribe to blogs that have new content
on a daily or weekly basis. If you're not making posts at least 2-3 times per
week, your audience could begin to lose interest. Generate regular content by
creating a monthly plan of topics to blog about, and by using multiple writers
who can provide useful information. The Northern Forest Canoe Trail's Voices From the Trail blog has commentary from staff,
interns, board members and trail partners in four states and Quebec to truly
show readers what is happening along the water trail.
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Move
people. The most popular blogs, YouTube videos and Twitter pages got that
status by making people laugh, cry or watch in wonder. People love to share
what moves them, and lots of sharing will make your blog popular. Post a kind
letter from a customer, a funny or touching video, or hold a "Show Us Why You
Are Our #1 Fan" contest to truly move your audience.
Starting a blog takes
only minutes, but growing your blog audience and getting them to share your
words and images with others takes time and effort. Blogging is an easy and
inexpensive way to inform a mass of people about your company. With creativity
and enthusiasm, a blog can be the star in your social media tool kit.
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Nancy Marshall Communications'
Web Development Team Launches
Two Websites
 The
NMC team is proud to have launched two new websites last week. The first is for
our client, the Maine Children's Home for Little Wanderers. The colorful
site reflects the brand of this cheerful place in Waterville, Maine. We hope
that visitors to the site will find it inviting, cheerful, optimistic and
welcoming. The state-of-the art site provides a variety of information
about the adoption agency as well as their numerous other programs including
outpatient counseling, Teen Parent School Program, The Children's Place early
care and education center, summer camp scholarship program and the agency's
popular Christmas Program. Visitors will also find pages for volunteer
opportunities, upcoming community events and secure online donations.
We also relaunched our own site for Nancy Marshall
Communications at www.marshallpr.com. Our friends had told us that our last site did not adequately reflect our
"Maine-ness," and since we focus on promoting to Maine people, for Maine people
and about Maine people, we recreated our site to reflect our brand
positioning.
Enjoy our new sites and as always, we welcome your feedback
and input. That's the only way we can do things better in the long run. Feel
free to send Nancy an email at nmarshall@marshallpr.com
and if you include your mailing address, we will send you one of our famous
"things to do" pads! |
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