7 Things Your Blog’s Sidebar Can't Live Without

by Diana Freedman

Thu, Oct 07, 2010 @ 08:45 AM

Your blog sidebar can be filled with anything you’d like, from fun and fancy widgets to ads for generating some extra income. But there are several important elements that your blog sidebar shouldn’t be without. They’ll not only help you keep readers on your site, but will help bring them back for more, or even turn them into leads.

Here are seven essential elements you should include in your blog's sidebar:

1. Option to Subscribe

Assuming you have remarkable content on your blog, which I know all you HubSpot blog readers do, your readers would be interested in coming back to your blog to read your latest posts. So make it easy for them! Add a subscribe button linking to your RSS feed URL. You can use Feedburner to create this URL from your original RSS feed URL, as Feedburner makes it easy for readers to add your feed to their RSS reader, like Google Reader. Also, make sure to include an email form field to allow users to subscribe via email, so your posts will go straight to their email inbox.

2. Category List

Often called “categories” or “topics,” this is a list that makes it easy for your readers to find content that they are interested in. Most blogging platforms automatically create this list from the categories or tags that you assign it when configuring each blog post. Try not to assign more than 1-3 categories per post, since any more would diminish the usefulness of sorting your content by category.

3. Most Popular Posts

The sidebar is a great place to display your most popular (usually meaning the most highly trafficked) blog posts. This way, readers won’t have to dig through pages and pages of content to find your most remarkable content. It will also peak people’s interests to find out why these posts are the most popular.

4. Recent Blog Posts

Including recent blog posts makes it easy for users who enter your site through a single blog post (rather than the homepage) to navigate to your most recent content. This is a great way to encourage readers to remain on the site and get additional page views.

5. Search Box

A search box makes it easy for your readers to find content based on the keyword or phrase they’re looking for. You can have this in your sidebar, but another popular option is to have the sidebar in your header (like HubSpot’s blog).

6. Social Media Connection Options

These days, RSS isn’t the only way readers keep tabs on their favorite blogs. Include links to your social media profiles, such as Facebook and Twitter, so that you can provide updates to your readers on sites that they visit each and every day. You can even add a Facebook Like Box (previously called Fan Box), so that users can “like” your fan page without having to leave your blog.

7. Calls-to-Action

Now that you have all this great content and blog traffic, you should include calls-to-action for what you want your readers to do next. This is especially useful if this blog is a business blog, as you can include CTAs leading to your landing pages and get leads. Try to make your CTAs as relevant to your blog content as possible. You’ll be able to place the most relevant CTAs within each blog post (usually at the bottom of each post) since you’ll be able to customize this space more easily.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6759/7-things-your-blog-s-sidebar-can-t-live-without.aspx/?source=email-magnet-65#ixzz12ulVvCwt

8 Steps to Create Your Winning Social Media Strateg

by Tracy Terry of Inbound Marketing University

Creating your social media strategy can be just as time consuming as creating your inbound marketing plan. It will entail lengthy research, investigative tactics, and thought. Below are some steps that you should consider when creating your social media strategy:

1. Goal. What is your goal? Is your goal to obtain brand awareness, create buzz, build your email database, generate more leads, increase your conversions, increase your web traffic, create more inbound links, or something else? Clearly establish what your goal is and then you can go about strategizing how to obtain that goal.

2. Market Analysis. You should know who your target market is and strategize about how to reach this market. Research your target market’s trends, characteristics, needs, and social activities. If you have an email database already established, you can use tools to help you find your audience, such as Facebook Friend Finder, Twitter’s follower tool, Flowtown, and Rapleaf.

3. Foundation. Lay out the foundation of your campaign. What type of message do you wish to portray about your company that will appeal to your target audience? Figure out the type of design you want to implement, color coordinating to your logo to keep in with your company branding. Define your copyrighting maximizing keyword exposure for your business.

4. Networks. Decide which social networks you are going to use actively to provide you with the maximum ROI for your goal. There are a ton of sites out there beyond Facebook and Twitter that might be best for your business. If you are in the music industry, you might be more suited toReverbnation. If you are in the meeting industry, you might be more suited for Plannermix. How many social networks do you wish be active in?

5. Content. Which content is going to be more appealing to your audience? Plan whether you are going to use personal text content, questions, trivia, photos, videos, podcasts, blogs, etc. Decide where and when you will be using each piece of content. Create an editorial calendar to help you along.

6. Integration. How will you be integrating your social media with your current marketing? It is important to maximize all media outlets to your best potential. Will you be placing your social media links on your website, in your emails and enewsletters, on your print ads, stating in your on-air advertising?

7. Management. Managing your campaign is crucial to its success. How are you going to manage the campaign? Who is going to post? Who is going to blog? Will it be one person? Will it be a collaboration of people? What bookmarking sites are you going to use? How are you going to measure your stats? Will you be posting manually or using a tool such as Hootsuite? These are important questions to ask.

8. Cost. What resources are going to be used to implement the social media strategy and how much are they going to cost you? Although social media is a free tool, there is a cost involved in hiring a professional to handle your social media strategy. This will be true whether you are handling your social media in-house our outsourcing. If you are adding social media to your current marketing plan without hiring any new employees, how much time will be involved in executing the social media strategy successfully? Will you be opting to exclude another form of media that may not be working for your company in order to include time for the social media aspects.

These are major points to consider when developing your social media marketing plan. Careful consideration should be given to each one. Taking your time and planning your strategy carefully will bring you the most success and not leave you wondering around the social media networks aimlessly with no goal and with no success.

Writing is a Challenge, not a Chore.

by Miles Burke
tribune@sitepoint.com

Writing is a Challenge, not a Chore.

Ever noticed that some blogs or articles read so much better than others? Some are a chore to read, while others are a pleasure. The same applies to emails and letters.

So what's the secret to writing with impact?

Well, I like to credit my writing in the Tribune to the fantastic editors that work tirelessly behind the scenes to make my stream of words sensible; however, there are a multitude of ways to improve your writing. Here are eight of them.

I challenge you to go through your website and look at your content in light of these rules. Fixing any issues may just make a big difference to your conversion rate.

Write When the Urge Hits

If you speak to professional writers, they'll tell you that they sit down for a full day every day and write those articles. The rest of us aren't that lucky. I find that I can only really write well when I'm in the mood. Sure, I can write even when I'd rather not be; however, I'm sure it shows when it's forced.

Know when you're in the zone to write and when you're not. Choosing to write when you're up to it will improve most people's writing considerably.

Simplicity is Key

Just like a new designer who uses ten typefaces on a simple graphic, many new writers believe they need to use complex words to look smart.

All that does is make your writing hard to read. It's okay to use a thesaurus to vary your word usage, but don't forsake a good, descriptive word for a more difficult one.

Avoid Verbosity

If you can take a word out without changing the meaning of the sentence, do it. Take this sentence, for example: what unnecessary words could you possibly remove? Let's try that again now. Take this sentence, for example: what words could you remove?

Notice the difference? Brevity, especially in business communications, is like a breath of fresh air. Readers will appreciate you for it.

Write Concise Sentences

Once you've written your piece, read it aloud. You should be able to read a sentence without gasping for breath. In business writing, people prefer shorter sentences. So as well as removing unnecessary words, aim for concise writing.

Keep Paragraphs Compact

People tend to scan websites, rather than read from top to bottom like they do with a newspaper. If you're writing for the Web, limit the length of your paragraphs, and your readers will keep coming back for more.

Use an Active Voice

This is not about exercising your vocal cords. Active sentence construction uses more direct language than its passive cousin, with stronger verbs that inject energy into the action. Compare the following:

• The website was built by me.
• I built the website.

In the first sentence, the subject is the website, which is being acted upon; it's in the passive voice. In the second sentence, I'm the subject that performs the action. Sometimes it's a case of what needs to be emphasized, but more often the directness of active construction is preferable for clear English. Not only is the sentence now shorter, it's punchier and reads better.

Spell-check, Spell-check, and then Spell-check

There is nothing worse than seeing spelling errors in business communications. I've lost count of the number of times I've watched a presentation with errors in the slides, or lost confidence in a business because their website is littered with misspellings.

Sure, use your spell-check software, but beware of homophones, when a correctly spelled word is placed in the wrong spot; for example, two, too, and to. Read it again slowly, and even ask a colleague to read it, if that helps.

Keep on Writing

The more you write, the more you'll improve. I find that regular writing does more for me than reading books on editing and the like. Warm up by writing a short piece, and then tackle the bigger jobs. Before you know it, you'll find yourself writing better without the agony.

Best of luck adopting these rules, and embracing writing as a challenge not a chore. With a little preparation and forethought, you'll be crafting better content and correspondence in no time at all!

What Qualities Do Companies Look For in a Social Media Intern?

from Mashable

Q. What Qualities Do Companies Look For in a Social Media Intern?

“When I’ve hired interns to work with brands I strove to find ones that had a passion for the web, especially in the social media arenas.” Jonathan Sexton, CEO, Socialgladiator.com

Good Communication Skills

Kelly Lux, the Online Community & Relationship Manager at Syracuse University & Syracuse University iSchool, puts “good communication skills” at the top of her list of desired qualities in an intern. Being able to communicate well is valuable in many areas, but in the social space it’s essential.

Nicole Ravlin, Partner, at PMG Public Relations echoes the sentiment. “We want to know that their communication skills are sharp,” says Ravin. “So we evaluate the content that they are putting out there”.

Solid Writing Skills

The ability to string a decent sentence together, to get a message across in your writing, or be able to communicate in short-form writing are all important qualities, as well.

Dan Klamm, Outreach & Marketing Coordinator at Syracuse University Career Services looks for “solid writing skills” in a candidate and he’s not alone.

“To me, someone with a good sense of wit and charm in their writing is appealing. Some of the best brands in social media have that combination and it’s attractive to users,” says Sexton.

Top-Notch Social Skills

Although taken for granted by many, it can be argued that social skills can’t easily be taught, so if you’ve got good ones, then make a point of showcasing it, as social panache is attractive in a social media intern.

“I look for social people to begin with, whether that’s internal at the corporate office or from the local campus, I want people who are already socially active in their own spheres,” says Jonathan Sexton.

Klamm agrees. “When I’m hiring a social media intern, I look for someone who has a strong personal network. I place emphasis on ‘a strong personal network,’ because I really want the intern to be able to leverage his/her connections to generate buzz around the messages that I am trying to communicate.”

And working well with others is another quality that will appeal to employers. “We are interested in people who will fit in with the group. We often have students recommend others who they know would be interested, and that they feel would be good team members,” says Lux.

Enthusiasm!

A bit of enthusiasm for the social space can go a long way and it will help show any potential employer that you’re going to be active in your role, rather than need constant chivvying.

“Students who are actively involved on campus and ‘connected’ are very attractive to us,” says Lux.

“We look for those that are incredibly enthusiastic about the space. There are so many new developments each day that we would expect an applicant to do their homework and know what is happening in real-time, that day,” says Danielle Ellis, Digital PR Evangelist at The brpr Group.

“And not so much as ‘do your homework’ as to know what is the latest because you love it,” Ellis explains. “Enthusiasm for the space is #1. The rest can come. Enthusiasm can quickly turn into social media addiction, which we do not frown upon here. We are all addicted to our Twitter handles and ‘checking-in.’ This is what provides us with the stamina to keep up with an industry that changes minute-to-minute.”

Q. What Experience Do Companies Look For in a Social Media Intern?


“Professional experience is not necessary, and not even realistic as this space is so new.” Danielle Ellis, Digital PR Evangelist, The brpr Group

“I want to see that they are already using basic tools on their own (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.),” says Ravin, who suggests having a personal blog set up is also a good way to convince employers of your good communication skills.

Lux looks for the same thing. “We look for someone who already has a presence in social media, either active on Twitter, blogging, etc.” Although as representatives of the University, her interns also have to project a positive presence. “There are plenty of students who are active on social media but who would not be appropriate as representatives of the University,” reveals Lux.

It’s a point that people are becoming more aware of. By now we’ve all grasped that sprawled-naked-drunk pics aren’t a great idea on social sites, but taking that further, be aware that your past tweets can all be evaluated, so you have to decide a level of sensible self-censorship that won’t make you look unattractive to potential employers.

“If I can see that the applicant has been active on their social media handles, handling themselves professionally, that is a huge plus,” says Ellis.

“Basically I make sure they’ve been on the Internet once or twice,” jokes Sexton. “And obviously I look for their knowledge of social media, especially in their personal networks. I look for that individual who ‘gets it’ or is already branding themselves and they may not even know it.”

Q. What Makes a Good Social Media Intern?


“A good social media intern is going to be much like any other intern, or other staff member — ability to work under [their] own direction. Show initiative, ideas. Ability to execute. Creativity.” Toby Storie-Pugh, Executive Director, Flying Kites Inc

“Someone who is creative, good at coming up with ideas — willing to take an idea and run with it without a lot of micro-managing by me, has tons of enthusiasm for what they are doing and is always looking for what we can do next,” answers Lux.

And of course, says Lux, you have to be prepared and willing “to work hard, at a moment’s notice, at all hours of the day and night.”

“A great social media intern is someone who can think outside-the-box and help brainstorm new ideas,” adds Klamm.

Nicole Ravlin considers a good social media intern as “someone who wants to learn and be part of a team.”

“We work in teams at PMG to build social strategy and then help clients execute. If an intern is truly interested in learning how we approach things and participates in the process it is a win-win. That participation, desire to contribute and being part of the team is key,” says Ravin.

“It is also great for the intern to take what they actually did, turn it into a portfolio piece, and show it (not just talk about it) to a future employer.”

The 15 Timeless Secrets of Happy People

by Alex Blackwell

How we achieve happiness can be different for each one of us. Our passions, expectations, life experiences, and even our personalities all contribute to the level of happiness we experience in our lives. Some people find happiness in their careers while others prefer the bliss found in their marriages or other intimate relationships.

No matter how you define happiness for yourself, there are certain universal and time-proven strategies to bring, and sustain, more happiness into your life. These 15 timeless secrets of happy people can be adapted and even customized to fit your needs. Over time, these strategies will become positive and life-changing habits that will begin to bring more happiness, joy and peace into your life.

Notice What’s Right
Some of us see the glass as being half-full, while others see the glass as half-empty. The next time you are caught in traffic, begin thinking how nice it is to have a few moments to reflect on the day, focus on a problem you have been trying to solve, or brainstorm on your next big idea. The next time you get in the slow line at the grocery store, take the opportunity to pick up a tabloid magazine and do some “guilty pleasure” reading. Take all that life throws out you and reframe it with what’s right about the situation. At the end of the day, you will be more content, at peace and be happy. Take the time to begin to notice what’s right and see the world change.

Show Gratitude
How many times do you say the words “thank you,” in a day? How many times do you hear these same words? If you are doing the first thing, saying the “thank yous,” the latter will naturally happen. Learn to be grateful and you will be open to receive an abundance of joy and happiness.

Remember the Kid You Were
Do you remember how to play? I’m not referring to playing a round of golf or a set of tennis. I’m talking about playing like you did when you were a child – a game of tag, leap frog, or street baseball when the bat is a broken broom handle and the bases are the parked cars. One way to find or maintain your happiness is to remember the kid you were and play!

Be Kind
There is no question that by merely watching acts of kindness creates a significant elevation in our moods and increases the desire for us to perform good deeds as well. Kindness is indeed contagious and when we make a commitment to be kind to ourselves and to others we can experience new heights of joy, happiness and enthusiasm for our lives.

Spend Time with Your Friends
Although an abundant social and romantic life does not itself guarantee joy, it does have a huge impact on our happiness. Learn to spend time with your friends and make the friendships a priority in your life.

Savor Every Moment
To be in the moment is to live in the moment. Too often we are thinking ahead or looking ahead to the next event or circumstance in our lives, not appreciating the “here and now.” When we savor every moment, we are savoring the happiness in our lives.

Rest
There are times when we need the time to unwind, decompress, or to put it simply, just “to chill.” Life comes at all of us hard and fast. Time, as do the days on the calendar, keeps going forward at its own natural pace, which is not always the pace we would choose. Fatigue, stress and exhaustion may begin to settle in on us faster than we may think, or notice. The best remedy for this is indeed rest.

Move!
The expression a “runner’s high” does not infer an addiction, but a feeling or a state of mind - a state of euphoria. There is no question exercise, or any physical exertion, elevates your mood and enhances a more positive attitude as well as fosters better personal self-esteem and confidence. Indeed, one way to increase your happiness is to move!

Put on a Happy Face
Sometimes we have to fake it until we make it. I’m not suggesting that we not be honest, real or authentic, but I’m suggesting, sometimes, we just need to put on a happy face and keep moving forward. Researchers claim that smiling and looking like we are happy will indeed make us happier. Studies further show that if we act like we are happy then we can experience greater joy and happiness in our lives.

Pursue Your Goals
The absence of goals in our lives, or more specifically avoiding to pursue our goals, makes us feel like we are stuck and ineffective. The pursuit of goals in our personal lives, in our relationships, or with our careers, is the difference between having a mediocre life or a life full of passion and enthusiasm. Pursue your goals and watch your happiness soar.

Find Your Calling
Some find meaning in religion or spirituality while others find purpose in their work or relationships. Finding your calling may be much more than accomplishing one simple strategy for increasing your happiness, but having a sense of purpose – of feeling like you are here for a reason – can perhaps bring the greatest joy of all.

Get into the Flow
Flow is the form of joy, excitement and happiness that occurs when we are so absorbed in an activity we love that we can lose ourselves and time seems to stand still. What creates flow is unique to each one of us. To find and sustain true happiness in our lives, we must get off the sidelines and get into the flow.

Play to Your Strengths
One way to achieve flow is by understanding and identifying our strengths and core values, and then begin to use these every day. Once we aware of our strengths and we begin to play to your strengths we can better incorporate them in all aspects of our lives.

Don’t Overdo It
Know when to say when. What gives you joy and happiness the first time may not work the second time. Too much of a good thing may begin not to feel as good if the “thing” becomes more of a routine, or an expectation. Set healthy and reasonable boundaries for yourself and don’t overdo it.

Appreciate What You Have
Want exactly what you have and know that what you have can be taken away in the blink of an eye. Hold on to it, treasure it, and let it cover you with love, comfort and happiness.


Written on 10/02/2010 by Alex Blackwell.
Alex writes for his incredible readers at The BridgeMaker, an honestly-written blog about faith, inspiration and personal change.