Jim Connolly Marketing

Blogging from the bathroom!

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$10,000 for 5 weeks work – blogging from a bathroom!

I was just reading a great post by Jack Neff on the AdAge.com blog, about a blogging gig being offered by Procter and Gamble; the owners of the Charmin toilet paper brand.  It seems they are offering five bloggers the chance to earn $10,000 for five weeks work.

Apparently, the bloggers will be expected to “greet and entertain bathroom guests and blog about their experiences” at Charmin’s restrooms on Times Square, New York.

The marketing power of blogs

Amid what seems like a pretty light-hearted story, rests a really valuable marketing lesson.  You see, although Procter and Gamble will be paying these 5 people a total of $50,000 for their blogging – the story has already generated way more than $50,000 worth of publicity for the Charmin brand.  This $50,000 sounds like a lot of money, but is peanuts in relation to what multinationals spend on their marketing.

Because the bloggers will be writing about the event for over a month, the story will ‘develop legs’ and have a bigger impact over a longer period than more typical, more expensive but less creative marketing ideas.  This really is an excellent example of creative marketing and Procter and Gamble’s marketing team deserve a massive amount of credit.

Their decision to choose blogging as part of this promotion, serves as yet another indicator of how big brands are realising the marketing power of blogging.  I think this $50,000 investment will be money well spent!

What do you think?

Jim’s marketing blog – Now on Headway

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As regular readers will notice, things look a little different on the blog now! That’s because I have just upgraded the blog from it’s previous, limited wordpress theme and am now running the blog using Headway.

Why I moved to Headway

The biggest frustration I have experienced as a blogger, is the massive amount of my time that’s wasted, when I need to make stylistic changes or modifications to one of my blogs.  This happens more often than you might think; as I am always looking for better ways to engage with my readers and provide them with a more valuable experience.

I do most of my blogging activity when it’s quiet – for me, that means nights and weekends.  Now, even though I have always paid for professional help, it’s seldom available to me when I needed it.  As a result, whenever I wanted to make a change to the blog that wasn’t directly accessible via the theme, it could take from a few hours to a few days for the changes to be made.

Last week I launched a new ideas blog using the Headway theme.  Like many wordpress themes, Headway claims that users like me can design a blog from scratch, with no need to touch the CSS / HTML. Unlike every other theme I have used, Headway actually delivered – In fact, it massively OVER delivered.

So much so, that Headway is the first ever affiliate product I have promoted on a blog!

What’s the big deal with Headway?

I am a marketing specialist, a content creator, a writer – but NOT a coder! I have zero HTML skills and no idea how to configure CSS.  However, using Headway, I can do everything I want to my blogs, using their drag and drop system.  In fact, I managed to reconfigure this blog today in less than 40 minutes – with no need at all to touch the code.

Here’s a few of Headway’s features, for those of you who are interested.  I wrote that post myself, to try and explain how easy, fun and flexible Headway is.

Full disclosure

I was so totally blown away with Headway, that I wrote to the developers to thank them.  After wasting almost a thousand dollars over the past 2 years, on themes that universally disappointed me, I decided to promote Headway as an affiliate.  This is the first affiliate product I have ever promoted on any of my blogs; such is my gratitude for how it has (literally) transformed how I blog.

To Clay and Grant Griffiths, the guys behind Headway; “Thank you!”

Why bloggers must come clean

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Something I have been passionate about for a very long time, is the need for bloggers to fully disclose if they are getting paid in some way, to write about a company / product / service.  Well, yesterday, The United States Federal Trade Commission announced that it would fine bloggers up to $11,000 if they post positive reviews or endorsements, for which they are rewarded in any way, without letting their readers know.

I have three blogs and operate a full disclosure policy on all of them.  Like all well-read bloggers, I get offerers pretty-much every day from people, who want to pay me (either money or freebies), if I will ‘just’ write about them, their business or their service in glowing terms.  My tech news blog often gets several such offers in one day.

Full disclosure

When a blogger is honest enough to declare any gifts they receive, it encourages the reader to trust their content.  For example, I found out yesterday that big time blogger Chris Brogan, receives his hosting for free from a well-known hosting provider.  The reason I now know, is that Chris openly disclosed this gift in a post he wrote, about the company who give him his free hosting. Sadly, there are no disclosures anywhere about his cross-promotion of products with other top bloggers, which kind of defeats the object of disclosing an affiliate link or sponsor.

That kind of honest declaration, allows readers to place the post in context, of how they feel, knowing about the relationship the blogger has with the company.

The trust of your readers is everything

The importance of trust when developing a successful relationship with anyone, can not be overstated.  This is equally true of the relationship between a blogger or content provider and their readers.  After all, who wants to read content that you can’t trust?

If you have a commercial blog or website and you want people to trust you and your business, being fully open is essential.

Using social media to launch a new blog

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So, can social media really help you market or promote something?

Oh yes!

Earlier today, I launched a brand new blog. Now, usually when you launch a new blog, the first day sees very little traction; after all, no one knows it’s there.  However, thanks exclusively to the use of a few social media tools, the blog attracted hundreds of unique visitors within an hour of its launch.  The blog has also attracted some great comments and people have been emailing me and tweeting to me all morning with feedback and ideas.

Here’s how I launched the new blog (quickly)

The primary tool I used, in order to let people know about the new blog, was Twitter.

A few days ago, I set up a Twitter account for the new blog, which had a handful of ‘followers’ but was essentially sleeping until the blog was launched.  Over the past 3 days, I mentioned on my regular @jimconnolly Twitter account that I was going to launch a new blog this week.  This got people asking me about it and asking to be informed when it launched.

Earlier today, I published the first post on the new blog and sent a Tweet via @jimconnolly, to let people know. I also sent a simple message to a handful of people I know on Friendfeed, all of whom shared the information with their contacts.

This tiny amount of Twitter and Friendfeed activity was aimed at encouraging a relatively small number of people to check out the new blog.  It seems they did and that they told their contacts about it too.  In no time, traffic to the blog started increasing at the perfect rate for me to be able to monitor it.  I will explain why this was important in a moment.

When people arrived at the blog, they saw a welcome post, which also contained a few suggestions:

  • I asked people to please check out a page that explained what the blog was all about.
  • I then asked people to subscribe to the RSS feed, if they wanted to keep up to date with new posts.
  • Finally, I asked people to join the new blog on Twitter @theideasblog – If they were interested in sharing ideas.

An hour later, I published a second post, which was a typical blog post and gave people an idea of the kind of content to expect. It also gave people something of value to read / share.

Summary

This was a simple, deliberately planned launch; which gave me the time to respond to comments and check the blog was working – rather than creating a sudden surge in numbers.  I mentioned earlier that it was important for me to be able to build the traffic to the blog steadily.  There were 2 reasons for this:

  • The blog is with a new hosting provider and I had not placed it under a sudden, heavy load previously.
  • For the first time ever, I configured and designed the blog theme myself. I had obviously tested it previously, but it’s different when the site goes live and it’s receiving comments etc.

By using Twitter, a message on my new blog and a few messages on Friendfeed, I was not only able to create a successful launch, but even control the initial flow of traffic (to a degree).  This was a great, real life example of what’s possible with social media.

This blog gets listed on the Adage Power 150!

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It’s always great to be recognised for your work isn’t it?

That’s why I was delighted, when I was emailed this morning by Advertising Age; telling me that this blog has just been listed in their Adage Power 150!

power150badge_blankAdvertising Age is a very popular and well respected weekly publication and online resource; for people interested in marketing, advertising and the media.  As one of their regular readers for many years, this recognition means a great deal to me.

It’s also humbling to listed along with the likes of Seth Godin, BrandRepublic and Mashable.

Don’t copy your social media guru

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I’m a marketing man, not a social media expert. However, because some social media tools are excellent for helping small businesses market their services, I’ve spent years studying the marketing potential of social media.

Here’s an important observation I would like to share with you.

Don’t copy your social media guru

It’s all about why you should not necessarily use the same social media strategy, as your social media guru.  Whilst their advice might be superb, simply copying what you see them do, is not always the right thing to do.

Let me explain.

In my experience, most social media professionals make their living selling a mixture of; books, downloadable products and ads or sponsorships on their blogs. Some of the better known social media figures also offer seminars / workshops internationally too.  Unlike most of their readers, they are not geographically limited in what they provide. Someone buying their latest book or eBook in the same street is no different from someone making that same purchase, on a different continent 10 time zones away.

If you run a business, which provides services (or sells to) a particular geographical area, you are going to need a far more geographically targeted approach to your use of social media.  You will need to focus your efforts in a way that attracts and develops opportunities in the area that’s of commercial interest to you.

For example, if you are an accountant or lawyer, it’s unlikely that you will be seeking business leads or referrals on an international basis.  Apart from anything else, your qualifications will restrict what you can offer internationally.  If you work in insurance, your products may have geographical limitations too.  Same again if you operate a franchise business, with a set territory.

Tools like LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook and FriendFeed are known for making it possible to easily develop an international network of contacts.  However, they also make it possible to search for (and connect with) your target audience too – people where you do business.

Your social media feedback

I know that a lot of my readers are big users of social media, some with great success!  If you have developed a social media strategy, which has a geographical element, or you have any tips for a more regional approach to social media; please share it with your fellow readers and myself.

I look forward to hearing from you.