Things to Think About When Expanding Your Social Media Avenues

There are so many damn social media outlets out there, and they keep coming.



Which ones should you be using? I can't give you that answer, since everyone uses social media avenues for very distinct and different reasons. I can however give you some things to think about when making a decision to use a particular one.

I am thinking about this in terms of marketing, advertising, or article promotion. What I mean by the last of those is three is that if you write an article somewhere and you want to promote it on the web. Marketo, a leader in business to business marketing outlined 5 things to think about. I will add my additional thoughts and other things to think about below.

1. Does the site have connectivity? Does it link to other sites so that you can get more exposure. Does this avenue integrate well with your own website?

2. Is it a choir to use? If you are using multiple social media avenues you do not want to be spending half of your day updating one.

3. Who are you trying to connect with? Who goes to that site and why do they go there? Does this fit into what you are trying to do? What size audience are you trying to reach, and is it a broad spectrum or a small one? You do not want to be using a site that reaches out to a large user base, when you really only want a specific group of people targeted, and only those people will be interested.

4. Test of time. There are a lot of different avenue being developed. Some kid on a computer is creating a different, new and improved Myspace everyday. Do you want to take a risk and try something new, or do you want something that has been tested true?

5. What is your goal by using this particular social media avenue? What are you trying to accomplish? The hope is that this will better your chances of appealing to your audience and increase your effectiveness.

6. Security. You want to make sure that you are using a social media avenue that respects your privacy. I know a lot of people will not use google+ due to this issue. Sometimes you may not be concerned about privacy, or you may never be concerned, but for those who are, do your research.

Social media can be a powerful tool for getting your product, idea, or article circulating around the web and creating a buzz. Just make sure you do not overwhelm yourself trying to use too many of these, or using ones that really don't do a whole lot.

Good Headlines Go Far for Readers - 9 Tips To Getting Noticed

Another great way to get your MyFDL post promoted to the front page for some real exposure, is to have a killer headline.

The goal is to have a headline that is strong and correlates with the text within the post. While there is not one way to go about writing headlines, no algorithm for success, there are some tips that our expert posters at FDL wanted to share.

A headline can have a huge impact on your post. Not only will more people on FDL read it, but others seeking the news on the Internet. Just think about supermarket tabloids and advertisements for food. Without a good headline or slogan, you’re eyes are not attracted to it, inevitably making it less successful. Lisa Derrick, from late night at FDL wrote to me and said; “Headlines Grab Readers’ Heads, Hearts.”

Here are a list of suggestions from our writers at the Lake:

1. A long headline can be effective, but as a general rule of thumb, you should always be as concise as possible

2. Use key nouns in your story (people's names, organizations, terms) to improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This will increase your chances of Google or other search engines recognizing your post.

3. Make it active. For example this post could have read "A Good Headline Goes A Long Way." The current headline give the title action.

4. You may want to think of you headlines as a 1-sentence abstract of the post.

5. Cut out adjectives and adverbs. Use strong, active verbs. Don't use the passive voice. Avoid TO BE verbs.

6. A headline in bold or in all CAPS is not the best way to get noticed. Focus on substance, rather than appearance.

7. Questions as headlines can be effective for readers, but questions lower your search engine visibility.

8. Be creative; comedic relief, quotes, popular culture phrases.

9. Don't be afraid to keep it simple.

It is important to grasp a readers attention, but the headline also has to match up with the content. Take this image to the right for example, which is a headline ad for a bacon company. Now, this headline is strong, comical, and attractive, but if it was not actually for a bacon company, and actually for a car company, it would have no worth.

Brainstorm when coming up with your headline, take your time, and do not settle. The title could be the only reason someone else reads your post.

Content Marketing - New Ways of Thinking in a Growing Medium

Whether you are marketing a product, idea, campaign, petition, or even a business strategy, your content has to be effective.

Simple concept to write down, more difficult to achieve. Since we are a kick-ass independent media company who focuses on political action, I will cater this discussion more in that direction.

The purpose of this post is to help you understand how to market a campaign that you feel passionately about. How do you get people interested initially? How do you convert them into supporters/activists? How do you keep them on your side and motivated? All things you should be thinking about in the long term, but in the short term, think about these things.

1. Capture the emotion. Human beings are behavioral species, believe it or not, we have feelings. It is your job when marketing an action to reach to the core of the emotion that drives them. Check out this article from Marketo about marketing philosophy!

2. Creating relationships one-by-one. Of course you cannot create an email or post for each person, but you have to create content that is relevant to a large body of people, but hits on a personal level to each of them. Think of the big picture, then make it personal.

3. Educate, don't sell. There has been a paradigm shift in content marketing in the business field, why wouldn't there be a change across the board? People are not just giving money away in these tough economic times. They need to be educated on the issue in order to support it. Teach them how to do something first, before asking them to do it. Simple, but this has not always been the case.

4. Nurturing. Continue to keep your supporters engaged, and do it with strong, educational content. Notifying your supporter base with news and updates about the cause, issue, or action, without any "ask" is important, and shows loyalty to them, and the action.

Content has to be generated often. It is tough with political actions to stay ahead of the curve and have content pre-produced, since most of the time you are acting 'in the now." If you can pre-produce, plan, and execute - a more proactive approach, you will be much more equipped and organized. If you are not lucky enough to have this luxury, then have a set plan, and stick to it. Stay focused, and remember to reach out to us at Firedoglake if you have ever need any help.

Images Will Help Your Post - Wordpress Tips

Images are not always necessary but they can help the overall look of your post and make it more appealing to the reading audience.

There are a lot of places that you can get images from, but you must keep in mind that we cannot allow photos to go up on the website that we do not have the rights to use. If you do use an image found on any search engine, it is not likely that we will be allowed to keep it up. To make sure that you are using an appropriate image, you could follow these steps below, using Flickr as a source.



1. Go To: http://www.flickr.com/ and click on the word search in the upper right hand corner. Then on the new page, click advanced search, also located near the right corner.

2. Here, in the the advanced search screen, you want to type in what you are looking for in the search box, choose all three options, photos, screenshots, illustration art, then select box that says "only search creative commons images."

3. Select the image that you want to use in your post.

4. Click on the word "share" located above the image, and a drop down will appear. Within the drop down, click on "Grab the HTML/BCCode."

5. Copy the entire HTML code to your clipboard. Go to your MyFDL post and click on the HTML tab on the post window. Make sure you are NOT in the visual tab. In the HTML side, paste your HTML code.

6. Once you have pasted the code, click back to the visual tab side and you should see your image. Click on the image and choose the icon that appears in the upper left hand corner of the image in order to EDIT it.

7. As shown in my screen shot (click to enlarge) you can edit the size of the photo, its position, right, left, center, and add a caption. You must add a caption to your photo giving credit to the owner of the image. In the caption, include the name of the owner and the title of the image. Example: Ryan Cook - Obama Nation. This info is provided on the page where you found the image. (Title is underneath the photo and owner to the right of the photo)

8. Click "Update" and your image will adjust within the post. In the visual side tab you can physically drag the image to where you would like it positioned as well.

If you are using other image sites make sure that you are allowed to use the image, can locate the HTML code for it, and that you give credit to the owner and title of the image.

If you have any further questions about adding images from Flickr or other sources, feel free to send me an email at ryan@firedoglake.com. I will be happy to help out the best I can.

Writing Like Shakespeare + Thinking Like Aristotle = Blogging Success

Sometimes we get caught up with modern modes of communication, tweeting, poking, and hash tagging, all of which sound more like dirty internet actions rather than marketing and writing strategies.

It's good to take a few steps back and dig deep down to our roots for guidance and support. Remember that good writing matters, and great words "stick." Marketo, a leader in online business to business marketing has been posting a few articles about these topics.

The first of the two articles worth mentioning talks about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We will focus on the Aristotle portion of the article for our needs.


Tips for writing from Aristotle:

1. Logos - Be logical. When writing, consider both sides, and deliver the best side with reason. Stick to the facts.

2. Pathos - Be emotional. Connect emotionally with the reader. Think about what they are feeling and target that particular emotion.

3. Ethos - Be ethical. In terms of writing at FDL, or any other new blog, be sure to maintain your credibility by having good strong sources, and data to back up your writing.

(click here for the full article)

The second article talks about writing like Shakespeare. The first step to writing like Will is to actually read his works. Once you have tired from reading, put your effort to good use and start writing; vividly and poetically. You want to make your post memorable and worthy of someones time. Not to mention, if you can make the post stick with them, all the more power to you. Interesting content and a topic of interest to get them involved is of course needed, but keeping them there, and from moving onto the next news source is essential.

Getting Clients To Do You Work

At my company we were $25,000 away from our fundraising goal with only a week left to make it up. We needed something quick, but we did not have the capacity.

What I decided to do was hire our supporters. Crazy right? No, people want to share their stories, they want people to listen, and you are giving them that chance. I segmented a list of people who had completed multiple actions for a specific campaign including donating money. I asked they if they would write a post on our blog and tell 'their story.'

They were so excited to be asked to do a task that they could easily have done and had permission to do before, but since they were asked in a manner that made them feel special and important, they jumped at it, like chum. By sending out 47 emails to a group of high energy clients, I was able to receive 5 very strong blog posts. With their permission, a fundraising ask and donate widget were added into their post.

By doing one hour of emails, and about 2 hours of html support and editing, I was able to increase our capacity by 100%. In additional, the quality of the work increases due to its diversity. Instead of myself or other members of our staff writing as they always do, we had fresh, exciting, and passionate posts from new writers.

Lets not use me as the example all the time. Say you are an advertising company who creates online templates. Have you client write a post on your blog, or a post on another blog stating how wonderful the product was. Make sure to offer a helping hand to your clients doing the work for you in order to optimize their post; backlinks, killer subject lines, and quotes from your company if possible!

Put A Little Google Plus In Your World

I can assure you that everyone on the staff calls are getting a bit annoyed with my constant Google+ blurps and shout-outs. One might think I was invested in it. I can also assure you I would be if I could afford it, but a series of terrible investing choices have left me with only lunch money.

Anyways, Google+ is now open to everyone. After just 90 days of its test trial, Google feels its new social media network is ready for anyone. What does this mean? Well for one, a lot more active users, and two, more of a reason to join up. With more people jumping on the Google social bandwagon, posting articles, statuses, music videos, and other links are going to be much more worthwhile in terms of visibility.

David F, one of our great members contacted me the other day about a post that he had written. I asked him how it was going, and he replied that he did not receive any comments and sounded slightly discouraged. The truth is, we have over 10,000 active writers at FDL, so many posts go unnoticed. The way that posts make it to the front pages of MyFDL and the main site, is by being read, and recommended. The more you are recommended, the better chance you have of being "front-paged" and furthermore, commented on.

Using Google+, where you can sign up here, is a great way to share your FDL posts with friends and followers. Every time that you post a link to your article on Google+, or Facebook for that matter, it will show up on your friends/followers news feeds.

Welcome Post - Blogging Nation

Welcome to my blog on marketing and online campaign strategies. My name is Ryan Christopher Cook and I am the marketing coordinator for CommonSense Media and Firedoglake (FDL). Most of my time recently has been dedicated to developing campaign strategies for fundraising at FDL.

FDL is an online independent new blog that has core writers, but is open to the community in its MyFDL section. This means that anyone can come onto the site and sign up to either comment on articles posted, or to create their own original posts.

In order to stay afloat, the company runs various campaigns and actions in order to receive donations.

What I would like to do with this blog is to cross post some of my articles that I have written over there targeting campaigns and product marketing, and add new posts that deal with business to business marketing, and business to consumer marketing. I hope to bring you new strategies and insights from the industries leaders and some of my own innovative ideas.

Please leave any suggestions or topics you may want me to cover.