February 13, 2013

The real benefits of guest blogging

Photo by Global Innovation Game via Creative Commons

Establish yourself as an expert through guest posts

Guest post by Moosa Hemani
SETalks.com

Guest blogging is riding high right now and the whole Internet Marketing sphere is buzzing with talk about it. Some people consider guest blogging to be a powerful tactic, while others disparage the idea, saying that guest blogging is misunderstood and people are misusing it.

Who’s right? I recently did a cartoon post on my blog discussing how guest blogging is powerful and how it is misused by many who have failed to understand the scope of awesomeness in this practice. Continue reading →

January 16, 2013

Add blogging to your to-do list this year

Photo courtesy of ~C4Chaos (Creative Commons)

Blog to differentiate yourself beyond your credentials & experience

Edelman recruited me because I blogged about Wal-Mart. Rosetta Stone invited me to blog for them because I blogged about learning German. AdAge invited me to write for their DigtialNext and Global News blogs. Blogging about social media marketing resulted in being invited by Socialmedia.biz and Biznology to blog for them. In the fervor of the presidential elections, I pursued column inches in The Huffington Post. In large part, I can thank blogging for most of my professional success. There is no more efficient way of expressing passion, what you know, and how you think than writing it out. A blog is the perfect platform.

In many ways, blogging made me. My degree is in English and Creative Writing and not in communications, public relations, public affairs, history, politics, languages, or computer science. However, I am a curious man at heart and am fascinated by the world we live in.

Continue reading →

November 1, 2012

Guide to events & conferences in December

A scene from Le Web London this summer. The original Le Web, in Paris, returns next month (Photo by kmeron on Flickr).

December, with all its holiday cheer, eases the pace of conferences and events in social media, marketing, and technology.

This December I’m most excited about Le Web in Paris, the city of lights, love and Internet innovation. This year Le Web will focus on how Internet-driven devices are taking over the world; just look at how much time people spend surfing “le web” on their phones. I’m also thoroughly excited for the 2012 startup competition where sixteen emerging startups will duke it out on stage. To learn more about this great conference read my take on Le Web.

For the full year, see our full Calendar of 2012 social media, tech and marketing conferences.

Continue reading →

June 28, 2012

Integrity is inherent in earned media but not paid

Yesterday I wrote a post called Blogger outreach is earned media not paid, right? wherein I asked if earned media was a think of the past and whether payola, pay-per-post, pay-per-link, sponsored posts, and site sponsorship were the new de facto in digital PR. This morning, Gail Gardner wrote a post in response, accusing us digital PR professional of stealing from bloggers since we agencies do get paid for doing blogger outreach only to “talk bloggers into working for free” on our behalf:

These companies want to argue they deserve “earned” media coverage when what they are really doing is BUYING that awareness by paying PR agencies to go out and sell it for them. They aren’t earning it by some good deed or being awesome – they are spending money to get a PR agency to talk bloggers into working for free on their behalf.

Continue reading →

June 27, 2012

Blogger outreach is earned media not paid, right?

My definition of blogger outreach has always been about acquiring earned media coverage from bloggers and online influencers.

My definition–and my assumption–has always been that blogger outreach is public relations and not paid media. I may well be mistaken.

Continue reading →

June 18, 2012

Keep blogging even after you fracking hate it

There’s no reason to ever let your blog go fallow. Unlike leaving farmland unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility as part of a crop rotation, there’s no benefit in ignoring your blog. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter what you do to keep your blog running on a daily basis, but it’s essential that you don’t allow your blog to be categorized as “archived” by search engines, to say nothing of being forgotten by your readers. First, I will address why keeping your blog updated is essential to search engines and how fickle Google is. Google is worse than a Harvard Dean when it comes to judging you. “What have you done lately” is the name of the game and it is better for your career as a blogger to write filler during those times you’re not in the blogging mood: you’re having a crisis of faith, distracted by something else, or time-crushed by a well-paying job, for example.

Continue reading →