Okay, I finally HAVE to do it.  I connected my KizmeTech FB page to my Twitter account, and I’m going to start to tweet soon.  To say I’ve been reluctant would be an understatement.  Part of my reluctance is due to the barrenness of the landscape on Twitter to the un-anointed.  Part of it has to do with the silliness of the name, it’s just not dignified to run around talking about tweeting with my clients, which leads to the last reason, my clients are just not ready for it!  They’ve had so much new to get used to lately…

To say that I am converted is perhaps an over-statement, there’s some lingering reluctance.  So what put me over the edge to give it a try?

1.  It works.  I did some competition research recently on a particular keyphrase.  There were these two sites, same services, different domain age, but everything else was very similar including link popularity!  One fed their tweets as news onto their home page giving some really useful tips.  It was the younger of the two domains by several years.  It was WAY ahead of it’s peer.  Showed up ahead of directories in a major city.  No other individual websites came up until page two except for this ONE GUY.

2.  Matt Cutts webmaster videos and other of my SEO resources are now only available by following them on Twitter.  So here goes.  I’ve been a believer in blogging for years now, but I STILL don’t do it enough.  Let’s see how the Twittering goes.  I actually think I’ll have more success, because they are by nature (as a micro-blogging platform) shorter posts. and now that my Facebook status updates feed my Twitter account, I’m in like Flynn!

Come along and share your thoughts!  I’d love to hear some stories…

Blogging is easy. Yes, really. And it’s even easy to get search engines to find you so they can share your thoughts with others.

Stop thinking about this as writing and start realizing blogs are all about having a conversation with the world.

Before I launch into my ideas and research results about how to get the most SEO benefit from your blog, I must share a couple things — one primary purpose of a blog is to establish your expertise in a particular field, second is for search engine benefit (though I acknowledge that’s WHY most do it). But what a blog is not is a place to directly market products or services. All posts should be helpful and/or educational, never “markety”.

OK, that said, now just Start a Conversation. Posts that result in ongoing conversations stay at the top of search results.

Clients come to me amazed by how much traffic they get for some of their blog posts, and how they begin to rise to the top for keywords they’ve been working to achieve visibility. Then these same happy clients are crushed when a month later their article has disappeared from sight, or site as the case may be.

It’s been my observation, and pretty well known that there’s a “news cycle” for posts, news articles, and all things published. That cycle lasts about 28 days. Consider that every comment on a post is “new” content others are adding to your site. You continue extending that news cycle without having to write a word.

So, what makes some posts easier to talk about than others? Having a pulse on your passion. A conversation is started when you are passionately and knowledgeably talking about a topic others want to know about. Staying current about the issues going on in your field is the easiest way to keep that pulse.

To unearth underserved content needs in your profession do regular, brief keyword research. It’s kind of like going on a fishing expedition. Start at www.seobook.com and use their keyword tool.  Brainstorm for 10 minutes or so and then plug in 25 or 30 root keywords and see what phrases people are looking for and use them in your post titles.

Passion + Expertise + Hot Topic = CONVERSATION!

Then, after you write your post, it’s time to leverage your social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. Enhance your channels of distribution by adding audio, video and images to your post and distribute them via Flickr, YouTube, iTunes and every place else.

If, like me, you have a blog that is underutilized (in other words I haven’t written a blog post in a LONG time because of client priorities), it is all the more necessary to do a little research before you sitting down to write.

But remember, it’s the observations, epiphanies and credible rumors that will generate enthusiasm and curiosity for readers – who in turn will want to start that conversation.

It’s just having a conversation, and hopefully starting more conversations, about the topic you are most expert in, passionate about and building your authority and web presence at the same time.

I am using this to help ease the way for traditional marketers and small business owners into the blogosphere and on-line community participation to give them that edge, but it’s really about all your marketing efforts. Just read this article on my favorite blog, and got inspired.
Relationships and community are being enhanced and built on-line. Funny, in the 90’s, during the dot com frenzy in which I was fully entrenched, we on-line enthusiasts were accused of destroying a sense of community. Now it seems as if we’re re-establishing it in a world where it is sorely lacking. Go us!

On-line where things could be so impersonal, to have a conversation and build relationships and community is the path to success. For years now we’ve been saying product is product now. It’s the value add that makes people decide on one vendor or another. One step further, it’s the trust and familiarity with PEOPLE behind the product and service.

Let’s get involved with each other!