Ever feel the need to make your personal thoughts and feelings available to the whole wide virtual world? Yeah, me neither. Which is why—for years of my life—blogging ranked pretty high on my list of “the most useless pastimes ever created.” (Honorable mentions go to needlepoint, bowling and golf). If you’ve ever wondered what to [...]
Recently, small businesses got an important reminder about the value a blog can bring to their business. If you haven’t heard, a new algorithm from Google called AuthorRank gives a real advantage to small businesses that continuously create fresh, high quality content online. For those businesses already using a blog for their business, this is [...]
We’ve been talking a lot lately about why small businesses may want to consider starting a blog. The conversation was sparked by a recent development from Google, which could give small businesses with a blog a real advantage when it comes to getting discovered online. But it has also been part of a bigger conversation [...]
Small businesses and organizations trying to grow their online presence are often told that one of the best ways to increase traffic to their blogs or websites is to start building relationships on these platforms. The wisdom goes that, by sharing information and comments on social media, news websites, blogs, and email marketing, you’ll establish [...]
If you’ve been searching Google lately, then you’ve probably noticed that some results have a picture next to them. That’s a sign that the author has integrated Google Authorship with their blog. Google Authorship essentially links the content you publish on your blog to your Google+ profile. This link between the author and the content [...]
Whether you’re a business or nonprofit, your blog should position your organization as the expert in the field. It should become a resource for news and in-depth looks at different issues, but also serve as a platform to communicate your values. Let’s say you have a blog. You even know the six ingredients that make [...]
When you think of online surveys and polls you probably think of the customer satisfaction survey you send out from time to time. But surveys are also an easy way to make the communications you’re already doing—email newsletters, content on your Facebook page, etc—more engaging. Engaged and interested customers and members are more likely to [...]
This past Thursday, I attended “How To Create a Blogging Plan for Your Nonprofit,” which was hosted by blog coach Britt Bravo at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco. To start off, she said that blogs had to be “juicy.” I sat there, stunned, envisioning our blog at Constant Contact as a very helpful [...]
We’ve debated what makes a good blog before, but we never really touched on the length of a good blog post. You don’t want to intimidate readers with steep cliffs of unbroken text, but at the same time, you want to make sure the topic you’re writing about gets the coverage and attention it needs. [...]
Well, it finally happened. This week, after months and months of breathless anticipation, Facebook filed its S-1 paperwork, one of the first steps as it prepares for its initial public offering. Shares are expected to be available this spring — which means that right now, there are a lot of stock market investors out there [...]