Stand Up, Stand Out, Stand Together (Blog World 2010)

Here are some key points from the October 14th Keynote – Stand Up, Stand Out, Stand Together by Scott Stratten at Blog World Expo 2010.

Content: First things first, “People Spread AWESOME.” You need to make sure that everything you do is awesome. RSS should not be the only way to subscribe. Your subscription options should depend on what your audience wants. Just because you like it, that doesn’t mean that everyone else likes it. Mobile versions of your content are critical. Don’t base your articles on KEYWORDS… (SEO) … SEO will come when you have AWESOME. Best SEO is to write great content. People don’t link to posts and say that was ok content, but it’s keyword rich!

People: Marketing is not a task. It is not a department. It is every interaction you have. People spread emotions … that’s a fact, but how they spread it has changed. Relationships equal business. People will only to business with people they know, they like, and they trust. There are no short cuts to making these relationships. Social Media will not shortcut these relationships, they still take time.

Blogging: Associating your blog with frequency is messed up. Write when you have something passionate to say. If you can blog awesome daily, then blog awesome daily. If you can only blog awesome once a week, then blog once a week. It should be so awesome that subscribers read it right away instead of posting it in the read later column. Don’t worry about what is next… fix what is going on now!

Social Media: Success in social media does not exist. Social media only accelerates things. If your product sucks, social media will make it suck faster. If your product is good, then social media makes it better. If your audience is people, then your audience is at TWITTER.

Your Site: Exit popups “work” but it is messed up. It is just like punching someone: most will dislike it and others will buy it just to have you stop. Why might you do it? Because they are leaving anyways. It’s like kicking someone’s ass as they leave your store. Captcha prevents 99% of the people commenting to solve 1% of the issue. Also, your engagement is awaiting moderation with your comments, this is a problem.

ROI: Everytime you ask for ROI, a Kitten DIES. If you look at everything from the eyes of ROI, you are out of luck.

Suggested tool: Tungle – allows you to schedule stuff online for free. But don’t ask for all the stupid fields such as phone number.