Cutting Through Content Clutter with One Social Thing
Posted on 17. Apr, 2012 by Jay Baer in Blog, content curation, Convince & Convert News, Convince and Convert, Email Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Besieged by blog posts, articles, and columns about social media and content marketing? I have a solution.
Last week, I wrote about our new blog and editorial calendar, coming soon to this very space. Today, news of our brand-new email service….One Social Thing. (www.OneSocialThing.com)
One Social Thing takes content curation to its logical conclusion. The Convince & Convert team (with help from you, read on!) figures out the single most important and interesting content about social media and content marketing, and sends it to you at the end of every day.
That’s it. The easiest to digest, most useful email update service around (we think). And of course, it’s free.
Here’s a sample of One Social Thing, so you can see the clean lines and smell the rich, Corinthian leather.
If you’re already a subscriber, thanks for your support. If not, please give it a try!
Help Create One Social Thing with #OneSocialThing
We spend a ton of time every day seeking and reading and evaluating content for our Twitter, Facebook, and One Social Thing programs (and soon, Google +). But we don’t see it all. If you find something you think is a MUST READ in social media and content marketing, please tweet it out with the #OneSocialThing hash tag. Not necessarily breaking news (we’re not Mashable) but the most important/useful thing of the day.
If we use your suggestion in an issue, we’ll mention you in the email (with a link), and tweet our thanks. Maybe something else extra-special for folks that really get behind One Social Thing.
Thanks as always for your trust, loyalty, and attention. I don’t take it for granted. One Social Thing is a new concept, and I’d LOVE your feedback on it.
Cutting Through Content Clutter with One Social Thing
Posted on 17. Apr, 2012 by Jay Baer in Blog, content curation, Convince & Convert News, Convince and Convert, Email Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Besieged by blog posts, articles, and columns about social media and content marketing? I have a solution.
Last week, I wrote about our new blog and editorial calendar, coming soon to this very space. Today, news of our brand-new email service….One Social Thing. (www.OneSocialThing.com)
One Social Thing takes content curation to its logical conclusion. The Convince & Convert team (with help from you, read on!) figures out the single most important and interesting content about social media and content marketing, and sends it to you at the end of every day.
That’s it. The easiest to digest, most useful email update service around (we think). And of course, it’s free.
Here’s a sample of One Social Thing, so you can see the clean lines and smell the rich, Corinthian leather.
If you’re already a subscriber, thanks for your support. If not, please give it a try!
Help Create One Social Thing with #OneSocialThing
We spend a ton of time every day seeking and reading and evaluating content for our Twitter, Facebook, and One Social Thing programs (and soon, Google +). But we don’t see it all. If you find something you think is a MUST READ in social media and content marketing, please tweet it out with the #OneSocialThing hash tag. Not necessarily breaking news (we’re not Mashable) but the most important/useful thing of the day.
If we use your suggestion in an issue, we’ll mention you in the email (with a link), and tweet our thanks. Maybe something else extra-special for folks that really get behind One Social Thing.
Thanks as always for your trust, loyalty, and attention. I don’t take it for granted. One Social Thing is a new concept, and I’d LOVE your feedback on it.
Redesigning Your Blog to Drive Reader Behavior
Posted on 10. Apr, 2012 by Jay Baer in Blog, Blogging and Content Creation, content marketing, Convince & Convert News, Convince and Convert, corporate blogging, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Soon, you’ll be seeing an all-new version of Convince & Convert.
It’s undergoing a full makeover, led by the amazing Rafal Tomal from Copyblogger Media. We’re of course staying with the Genesis Framework that provides enormous customization capabilities with unmatched ease-of-use. Here’s an almost-ready preview:
The design is based on the new Streamline child theme that is successfully being used by Danny Brown of Jugnoo – who has forgotten more about blog optimization than I’ll ever know.
The Case for Redesign
Even though WordPress (especially with Genesis) is exceptionally easy to work with compared to old skool Web design days, it’s still a major undertaking. Lots of blogs out there rarely if ever change their look and layout. Why bother?
In addition to the power of self-expression and the organization of your thinking it mandates, blogging for business has one primary outcome: it triggers desirable behaviors among readers. Identifying, measuring, and optimizing those behavior patterns are key elements of your blog strategy.
Very few bloggers (especially in the business category) are blogging strictly for eyeballs, as advertising revenue is typically a minor benefit, at best. Instead, the blog is an emcee, not just a vessel for your musings. It’s a public manifestation of your knowledge, and encourages readers to act in ways that help build your business over the long haul. It’s symbiosis. You trade what you know in exchange for readers’ time, attention, and advocacy.
Convince & Convert is growing and changing constantly, and the current design isn’t set up to emphasize the behaviors we are focused upon in 2012. The redesign is intended to address these informational and behavioral objectives:
Emphasize that Convince & Convert is a company, not a guy. There are 5 of us on the team, with a half dozen other collaborators.
Desired Behavior: Increase ratio of visitors viewing About Us.
Better explain our social media and content marketing services.
Desired Behavior: Increase ratio of visitors viewing services pages.
Showcase our new Social Pros Podcast.
Desired Behavior: Increase ratio of visitors viewing Podcast page and conversion rate for Podcast subscriptions via RSS and/or iTunes.
Increase Email Sign-ups. Considering many of us at C&C have a background in email marketing, our subscription rate is embarrassing. Time to fix.
Desired Behavior: Conversion rate for email subscriptions.
Spotlight speaking capabilities. My jaybaer.com site is dedicated to social media speaking, and was also built by Rafal Tomal. It’s terrific, but we need to drive more referrals from C&C over there.
Desired Behavior: Increase referred traffic to jaybaer.com
Increase depth of visits. High bounce rates are common on blogs, especially those that have a high ratio of new visits and visits from search. However, I want to see our bounce rate drop by making it easier to browse and by implementing a more compelling related posts feature. For the record, our bounce rate is 69%, our new visitors ratio is 70%, and our traffic from search is 29%.
Desired Behavior: Reduce bounce rate among new visitors (71% currently)
Once the new site rolls out and we have some data, I’ll write another post with some before and after statistics.
A New Target Audience and Approach
The presumed audience for this blog since its founding in June, 2008 was corporate and agency marketing professionals, with a side order of small business owners – especially on tactical posts. This year, however, we have tweaked the audience focus for Convince & Convert, and our objective is to write for social media and content marketing professionals. We don’t want to be Social Media Examiner, Social Fresh, or Content Marketing Institute and try to answer every conceivable question. Nor do we want to be a blog like TwistImage, BrianSolis.com, or SideraWorks that’s anchored in thought leadership and what comes next. There is a content chasm between those two types of blogs, and we want to fill it (along with Social Media Explorer, {Grow} and SpinSucks).
With the blog and podcast, we talk about what all of this means in practice, and how you can leverage the constant upheaval in social media and content marketing to the advantage of your organization. We’re innovative, interesting, hype-free, and approachable. Our objective is to give you advice and opinion you can’t get elsewhere.
A New Editorial Calendar – and How I Blog
Last week, Mitch Joel wrote a fascinating post about his blogging process (read it) that stemmed from an equally interesting post from Chris Brogan (read that one, too). I discovered that I write almost precisely the opposite of Mitch. He writes every day, and publishes whatever and whenever the mood strikes him – which is pretty much always! I am far more structured. For years, I have written three posts per week here, and typically have topics (or at least ideas for topics, which I keep on the notes section of my iphone) set up weeks in advance.
I write on a schedule, not when I feel the need to write. I have come to the conclusion that this is somewhat unusual for bloggers. For at least two years, every post I’ve written has been done on a weekend or on a plane. When I have the luxury of not being interrupted by phone or email or DMs or SMS, I write. Sometimes, I’ll write five posts in a row. Other times, just one. Incidentally, I did The NOW Revolution the same way. I wrote 1,500 words per day for 21 straight days. Amber Naslund is more like Mitch, and is a “flow” writer. During the book process, she’d have nothing, nothing, nothing then bust out 8,000 brilliant words. Interesting (at least to me) how different these processes can be.
I mostly write in WordPress, unless I’m on a plane with no Wi-Fi, in which case I write in TextEdit and then move to the blog. I always write on my MacBook Pro. I once tried to write a post on my iPad, but it felt too foreign. A post usually takes me an hour or so.
I wish I could write every day like Mitch and Chris, but I can’t. Scott Stratten consistently pays me a very nice compliment in his speeches, saying that he stops what he’s doing whenever I publish something new, because every post is rock solid. He’s a liar. I came to the conclusion late last year that I was worrying too much about quantity, and quality was starting to suffer. The growth of the consulting side of the business was impinging on my ability to create truly first-rate content. So with encouragement from Ann Handley I made some changes and we have implemented a new editorial calendar over the past 60 days, which has the dual benefit of freeing up some of my time, and providing more and better content to our shifted target audience.
Here’s how it works now:
Sunday/Monday – Long post from me where I can dig deep and hopefully make you laugh, cry, think. It’s like Cats.: you’ll read it again and again.
Tuesday – Guest post from someone awesome. This piece from Anthony Juliano last week on 5 Reasons Linkedin is Boring – in a Good Way was delicious. Sometimes I write a second post (like this one) instead of a guest post.
Wednesday – Innovative post on tools and tactics from one of the members of the C&C team. Chris Sietsema’s post on content marketing Bricks vs. Feathers was rock solid, and clients are already starting to use the “bricks” and “feathers” descriptors.
week – just in time for your weekend catch-up reading.
Because we have more authors on the blog now, we’re also going to be changing the layout of individual posts. This is primarily to increase readability and to have more consistent real estate to describe and promote the authors, similar to how Social Freshdoes it.Traffic is up 20% since we moved to the new calendar, even though I’m writing less personally. That’s good news for business, and bad news for the ego. 
So there you have it. That’s where we’re headed with Convince & Convert. In the immortal words of Spinal Tap, “We hope you enjoy our new direction.”
Conversion Optimization School is in Session
Posted on 16. Aug, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, Convince and Convert, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Ultimately, almost every website is about conversion rates. That blog design that you slaved over should eventually drive conversion rates where your prospects read, download, call or otherwise behave in a way that is beneficial to your company.
I know this first-hand, as my former company was a leader in conversion optimization in the early aughts. But now I’ve gotten soft and lazy. I’ve lost my way, and the blog that you are reading right now – Convince & Convert – doesn’t have the conversion rates I’d prefer.
To save the day, Derek Halpern from SocialTriggers.com (the authority on the uneasy, shotgun relationship between conversion optimization and blog design), sat down with me for a remarkable, comprehensive session where he analyzed every element of this site.
I learned as much in these 45 minutes that I ever have. You will too.
I can’t summarize it all here, and I certainly can’t transcribe it because it would be very long. But I really hope you’ll find the time to watch this, as I guarantee you’ll tire out your hand taking notes about blog design and how little tweaks impact conversion rates.
A Pixel-by-Pixel Conversion Optimization Analysis
Some of the topics we covered:
- The importance of navigation and how it impacts conversion rates
- The past, present, and future of RSS subscriptions
- Embedding forms on multiple pages to boost conversion optimization
- Whether categories and tags are necessary in modern blog design
- Whether having a giant “Buy Now” button next to your head shot is a good idea
- The gator-filled swamp that is the sidebar
I’ve got a whole bunch of irons in the fire right now, but in a few weeks I’ll be making many of the changes Derek recommended. His advice was incredibly sound, and one key takeaway for all of us should be that having fresh eyes on your work is always a positive.
So please take the time to watch the full conversion optimization analysis, you’ll be glad you did. While you’re at it, sign up for Derek’s newsletter. Mine too, if you haven’t, please.
This is part of a whole blog design improvement project, so what would YOU like to see me change here? The comments are yours, and the feedback is very much appreciated.
Finally Convince and Convert Gets All Effed Up
Posted on 29. Jul, 2011 by Jay Baer in 3-2-1, Blog, Convince & Convert News, Convince and Convert, facebook, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Yep, I finally did it.
After years of holding out, I launched a fan page for Convince & Convert on Facebook.
“Oh great,” you’re thinking. “Another place to interact with Jay, who is already littering my life with blog posts, tweets, Google Plus musings, and an email newsletter. Enough Jay!”
And I feel the same way.
I want a couple weeks to get our sea legs. And then, we’re going to treat Facebook a little differently. Yes, I’ll sometimes post links to interesting things I find online. And I’ll post links to blog posts that run here at Convince & Convert, plus info on Webinars, events, and other projects we’ve got cooking.
But wait, there’s more.
I Can’t Get F’d Up Without You
I want to give YOU the opportunity to curate great content too. To point out bloggers and companies and resources and people that don’t get the attention that I do here at C&C. I’m giving each of you the chance to control the Convince & Convert Facebook fan page for two days at some point in the future. Just email info@convinceandconvert.com and volunteer. You can post whatever you want, whenever you want, for 2 days. I trust you to do the right thing, and want to use Facebook to highlight YOUR contributions and the contributions of people YOU believe in. You’ll post as C&C, but tag your own name as the contributor.
Let’s Get F’d Up Together
I’ll also be starting a new series (hopefully we can make it regular) where I jump on Facebook and answer your questions about social media and content marketing live via streaming video (using VPype or UStream). That will be fun, and educational, and interesting.
So get your lists of questions ready. And if YOU’D like to go live online to answer question on the C&C Facebook page, email me and volunteer for that too. We’d love to have you.
We’ll also be posting social media jobs – and job seekers – on Facebook, so if you have a position you’re looking to fill or if you’re in the market for a new gig, send us an email about that, too. (we also include these in our twice-weekly emails).
Get Your Clicky Finger Ready
But first, you have to become a fan. I’d love for you to actually go see us on Facebook by clicking right here. But for you busy types, you can like the page without leaving by clicking the button at the top right of this page.
We’re also running a complicated series of conversion rate tests on Facebook along with some corporate clients, so it would be fantastic if you would sign up for the 3-2-1 newsletter from the Facebook landing tab, if you don’t get the email already (and you should because it’s free and uber-useful, and includes job listings).
From the bottom of my heart and the top of my keyboard, thanks for your continuing support. There’s a lot of places you could choose to spend time online, and I’m blown away by anyone who decides to spend some of that precious commodity with me here.
See you in Zuckerburg-land.
10 Great Ideas Coming Right Up
Posted on 14. Jun, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, Convince & Convert News, Convince and Convert, Guest Posts, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
It’s time for my annual summer vacation. This year, as a token of my appreciation + relationship reconnection after writing a book, moving to Indiana, and then embarking on a six month book tour, I am taking my wife to Vahine Island, a 23-acre motu in Tahaa, French Polynesia.
There are only 9 rooms on the entire island, and essentially nothing to do other than be mesmerized by your surroundings. There is allegedly Wi-Fi, however, so I’ll try to upload a couple of photos and videos. (if you catch me doing more than that, you have my permission to digitally slap me back into vacation mode)
Before and after our island adventure, we’ll be back in Arizona and California, catching up with friends and family, so I’ll be half-working some of that time. Consequently, I’m taking three weeks off from Convince & Convert blogging.
But you won’t even miss me a little bit, as I have an amazing array of guest posts lined up that will make you laugh, ponder, argue and holler. Here’s the upcoming cast of characters, and the knowledge they’ll be dropping around here:
June 15
5 Ways to Deliver B2B Marketing Content That Sells – Carmen Hill from Babcock & Jenkins
June 16
4 Keys to Turning Negative Commenters Into Brand Advocates – Chris Book from ChatterPlug
June 17
100% of Marketing Stats are Made of Numbers – Jeff Rohrs from ExactTarget
June 20
6 Ways to Show You Give a Damn in a Job Interview – Elizabeth Sosnow from BlissPR
June 22
Google, Social Media, and the Wisdom of Enigmas – Daniel Lemin from Social Studio
June 23
Measuring Facebook Fan Engagement Beyond the Like – Matt Simpson from Bulbstorm
June 24
Secrets of Social Media You Learned in High School – Bill Murtha from Roberts Communications
June 27
What You Should be Saying with Your Email (+ infographic) – Chris Sietsema from Teach to Fish Digital
June 29
When a Picture is Truly Worth 1,000 Words – Aaron Strout from Citizen Marketer 2.1
June 30
The Fallacy of Round-the-Clock Social Media – Chris Hall from Off Madison Ave
It’s going to be quite a run. Last year, a few of the guest posts ended up in my Top 25 most popular posts of the year, proving that I’m pretty superfluous to this operation. Please support these great guests with your tweets, shares, comments and the like. They’ll appreciate it. Me too.
Thanks as always for your support. I’ll drink something with coconut in it in your honor.
Cheers,
J
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