Google Doesn't Like Me!

Part II:  Building Relationships

Richard Banfield
(www.freshtilledsoil.com) at the Garden Writers Association Meeting on Feb.4th in Boston.
Topic: Marketing Suggestions from a Professional Marketer

In Part I, I discussed Richard Banfield's take on building engagement by blogging and using other social networking tools.

Part II:  Building Those Relationships: How?
Have you ever asked yourself the question, in relation to your blog:

How Can I help you?

What Do You Want From Me?

I often ask myself these questions, in relation to personal relationshps, but never in terms of blogging.
If you engage in a shared user experience, Banfield says opportunities will come to you.  Simply said, you need to give people a reason to stay on your site/blog.

QUESTION:  Are you writing for yourself or
Are you writing for an audience?
"A Blog is not a journal or diary." Banfield

QUESTION:  What is the structure of your URL?
Does google like you?
Have you ever thought about how google categorizes?  About title tags? How many characters?
Banfield "Google is like a prom queen." 
Do you think of google as an entity with preferences that you can and should use to your advantage?

QUESTION:  Do you use the tools that are available? 
Video, linking your video on YouTube to your blog? subscribing to other blogs, linking to other blogs, teaching, training, reviewing books, reviewing products, submitting content to Yahoo, indexing on google, submitting articles to other sites, etc. etc.
This may be old hat to most of you, but to me it was an eyeopener.

Ultimately the message from Banfield:

"Blogs require a piece of yourself."

It turns out blogs are about commitment.  Those of us with commitment issues, may not be the best bloggers.  If you can conquer the blogosphere, you may be able to cancel those shrink appointments.
Best of Luck!

Really, It's All About YOU!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog called, "It's All About Me, "
in response to an article in The New Yorker titled, "Enough About Me."
Now, I find out "It's All About YOU."

60 seconds after Richard Banfield (www.freshtilledsoil.com), opened his mouth, he shattered my illusions. He, spoke at the Regional Meeting of the Garden Writers Association on February 4th in Boston.
Topic:  Marketing Suggestions from a Professional Marketer."

PART I
Richard threw out the first salvo almost immediately,
WEBSITES ARE DEAD
What! I just spent mucho $$$$ and much time and energy designing my website and now it turns out it's irrelevant.  According to Banfield, websites are like brochures, they are static entities.  Like business cards, they announce your existence in cyberspace, but fail to build relationships.  To me, this sounded like shrink-speak.  It turns out that blogging, twittering and all social networking rely on creating the same relationships that make marriages succeed or fail.

Banfield's point:  The web gives you the opportunity to communicate with other people - either successfully or not.  It's up to YOU to create relevant engagement.  And as in "real" life, this engagement requires a significant interaction, if the two parties are to continue to connect.  I secretly wondered if my success on the web depended on my success in maintaining relationships in life. 

The question Banfield posed:  Is the content you are posting, resulting in a meaningful interaction?

Are you writing for yourself? Are you writing for an audience?

End of Part I.  To be continued in the next blog.