The end of January is upon us already. In just a few short weeks, one-twelfth of the year has passed. With now more than four weeks of the new year behind us now, we should be able to get a read on how the year is shaping up. As a follow-up article to my previously published tips for successful blogging, let’s check in on our own blogging strategy and inbound marketing efforts in 2012.

Do we now have a plan in place?

Have we worked up a detailed online marketing plan that clearly sets out specific steps and a establishes a publication schedule for our small business blog? If not, let’s set a short deadline and ask a colleague, mentor or friend to hold us to this deadline.

Is our timetable proving practical?

Are we spending enough time on our blogging efforts? Are we spending too much time? As small business owners, we need to appreciate the demands of our work days to ensure that we give our online marketing efforts sufficient time and energy. Failure to do so could certainly cause our blogging efforts to deliver fewer returns that we might expect.

Have we noticed any returns on our blogging efforts yet?

While it is definitely too early to expect a significant upswing in traffic or sales to measure, we should notice at least some change or have picked up a few anecdotes as a result of our blogging: a new commentor, a new contact on LinkedIn or Twitter or an email response to one or more of our posts.

Do we have a method to tracking anecdotes?

How are we saving the little stories that give flavor and dimension to our web statistics? Are we using Google Docs? Maybe a spreadsheet on our local network server (so our colleagues can also access it)? Are we actively sharing and promoting that document internally as a way to help build enthusiasm around our blogging campaign?

Are we keeping online marketing a priority for our small business?

Have our inbound marketing efforts slipped down the pecking order? As small business owners, it’s easy to get bogged down or distracted by the day-to-day operations of running our company. Yet for our inbound marketing campaign, we need to dedicate ongoing and focused attention to our blog.

As a small business owner, I set myself a pretty aggressive online marketing schedule. I spend a lot of time promoting the business, trying to sell our services.

However, sometimes I have to give my marketing schedule a pass. As a small business, I can respond to only so many curve balls and tasks in a week. And frankly, this week had me running. As Friday afternoon rolls in, and having been at my desk since 3.00 am this morning, I have decided to take a slightly more Jimmy Buffett approach to this post: beer and pistachios. I know my limits, and my limits have been reached.

Yep, I am not meeting my inbound marketing task for the week, but I am doing so as a calculated decision. Other business efforts took higher priority this week. I’ll will be back to normal broadcasting next week.

As the new year rolls forward, many small companies and organizations will focus attention on the creation of a business blog. For some businesses, this process will entail returning to an existing blog that has been allowed to wither or go stale from lack of attention. With this blog post, I aim to offer guidance on how to get a business blog on track for success in 2012.

1. Have a plan and write it down

It’s a generally accepted fact that small business owners are busy. Between the tasks of selling the company’s products or services and handling the administration of the business itself, small business owners are pushed for time. When time is a premium, advanced planning will always be a beneficial step. Professional and personal life coach Brian Tracy regularly states in his many books and seminars that every minute of planning saves at least 10 minutes of work time.

In planning for the next twelve months of this new year, let’s set down a detailed, step-by-step plan for using our business blog as an online marketing tool. Consider and set forth what actions we need to take, how much time we need to take those steps and when we will actually take those steps. Be specific. And let’s be sure to write our plans down. On paper. (I keep a printed copy my online marketing plan in a special folder on my desk, always within arm’s reach.)

2. Commit to a realistic time frame

Online marketing and, in particular, inbound marketing, requires concerted effort over a number of months. Business blogging must be an ongoing task for the company if there is to be a notable return on the investment of time and energy that small business owners will spend on creating valuable content. According to Mike Volpe, the Chief Marketing Officer at HubSpot, an inbound marketing campaign can take from a couple of weeks to least four months to gain benefits.

For the new year, let’s commit to blogging for a minimum of three months and ideally at least for six months. Let’s follow our written plan with vigor and zest. Be dedicated to our online marketing efforts.

3. Measure web activity and traffic

As the months of the new year roll by, monitoring the traffic levels and activity on a business blog is an important task. More than simply checking to see if overall numbers are trending upwards, let’s make an effort to ascertain if our intended keywords are bringing in the traffic and making the connections that we’re working towards. Don’t forget to keep an eye on the number of comments and inbound links as well. Those are key indicators of the value that our audience places on our business blog.

4. Note wins in an easily updated + shareable way

While web traffic and numbers of comments are easy to note, other online marketing wins prove more difficult to record and therefore often go undocumented. Wins can include an email from a key customer about one of blog posts or a door that we were able to open because we shared a link to another of our posts with a potential client. How are those little gains noted?

For the new year, let’s create a document, spreadsheet or other approach for sharing these little wins in an accessible and easily updated fashion. At lbdesign, we use an intranet blog to detail the specifics of these successes. I keep the intranet posts short and sweet — just detailed enough to be of use to my colleagues. An alternative method would be to use Google Docs.

5. Treat online marketing as a priority

Online marketing and business blogging must take priority on the ‘to do’ list if small business owners are to be successful in their new year campaigns. Just like traditional networking or sales, blogging for business takes time and energy over a dedicated period of time. The only way to ensure a positive return on inbound marketing efforts is to treat blogging as one of the most important steps in growing the business.

As this new year starts then, let’s remind ourselves that business blogging is a top priority for our small business.

While hitting the treadmill for a bit of exercise this afternoon, it occurred to me that business blogging is in many ways like Altoids mints. “What?!?” you blurt. “Blogging for businesses is rather like Altoids, the curiously strong mints,” I respond. The look of bewilderment on your face makes clear your confusion and lack of agreement.

Let me explain.

For those unfamiliar with Altoids, they are a very strong, very particular brand of mints produced by Callard & Bowser. They were first made in 1780 and have been going strong – literally – ever since.

The history lesson is nice, but how does that connect a breath mint with writing blog posts for your business?

Easy there. It’s the holidays. Have a little cocktail or a big mug of hot chocolate, relax and allow me to continue. Joking aside, I do believe that there were some interesting and valuable connections between Altoids and business blogging.

Altoids are strong and have a distinct flavor

The taste of Altoids is one that is not easy to forget — it stands out and has a potency that is not soon forgotten.  A well-written post will have a strong enough voice to be heard over the din of other blogs and will possess a sufficiently individual approach so as to offer readers a unique perspective.

Altoids are fresh

As a strong mint, Altoids certainly freshen the breath like few other mints. The freshness of the mint gives our mouth a little boost, just like a good business blog post gives our customers and readers a bit of insight and a boost of inspiration.

Altoids are professional

With a powerful punch of minty flavor, Altoids can ensure that our breath is fresh and smelling great (so that we don’t offend anyone with the smell of the roast garlic burger that we ate for lunch) for that important business meeting. A business blog should be as professional and well-prepared as we are when we walk into a sales meeting with our best customer.

Altoids are consistent in their presentation

Look for the Altoids on sale in the checkout display at the supermarket or the cornershop. They look smart. Well-presented. Ready for business. When we open the tin and pop a mint into our mouths, we will immediately recognize the great taste, the unique flavor and the distinct minty burst of flavor. Our blog should be similarly solid in its presentation: the design, the content and the delivery all must work together.

Altoids support the business brand

Look at the packaging. Study the quality of the presentation. Enjoy the curiously strong taste of the mint. It’s easy to see – and taste – how an individual tin of Altoids supports and promotes both the Altoids product line and the Callard & Bowser brand. Our business blog should do the same for our business, our products, our services and our brand.

Altoids are fun and a bit silly

As we can see in the photo to the right, the Altoids packaging is playful and lighthearted. Our business blog can pack that same sort of subtle humor or occasional quirkiness that endears our posts to our readers.

So, pick up a tin of Altoids as you wrap up your last few rounds of holiday shopping and see how those extra strong mints can add some zing to your business blog.

At a recent Chester County Internet Marketing Meetup, I took part in an exciting conversation about blogging for business. As it was, most of the people at the Chesco IM Meetup work either for themselves or for small businesses and organizations — and practically everyone was interested in learning about blogging for business. The conversation eventually progressed onto how to use a professional copy writer to help craft posts that visitors to a business blog would want to read.

The following suggestions are just some of the conversation highlights — the list is not exhaustive. Moreover, the ideas below are not entirely mine; they are mix of my own ideas and recommendations from a number of intelligent people at the meeting.

Share your knowledge of your business

No one knows your business better than you do. Even your employees won’t know the history, aims, customers and services like you do. You’re passionate about your business. Share that knowledge and passion with your copy writer to help him or her understand and feel your excitement.

Share your industry expertise

Many professional writers produce blog copy for a variety of industries. While those writers are likely to know something about your industry, they probably will not be as much of an expert as you are. To help your writer get to grips with the subtleties and nuances of your industry, be sure to coach your writer on the ups and downs of your business field.

Provide detailed feedback

Few tasks are as difficult for a creative as creating blog content in a vacuum. Without input from you, your copy writer will struggle to get the proper tone and angle for your blog. The writer will need detailed feedback from you about what you like about a draft post, what you don’t like and where and how edits can be made to improve the piece. Rely on the copy writer’s skill to add flavor, creativity and professionalism to the blog, but definitely take the time to engage in the drafting process.

Be timely in responding to requests for feedback or further details

In order to maximize the efficiency of your writer, it’s important to respond in a timely fashion to requests for feedback or further information necessary to complete a blog post. Courtesy considerations aside, the process of good writing demands a certain attention and rhythm, just like most creative activities. If your writer is in a rhythm, it’s best to support that with timely answers. Forcing the writer to wait a lengthy period for answers might even cost more as the writer will need to review the draft blog post before making further edits.

Plan in advance

As with any consultant, planning in advance makes for a more efficient and cost-effective business relationship. You will be aware of the different topics that matter to your customers and to your industry at different times of the calendar year. Plan your blog post content with your copy writer in advance of when those topics become relevant. This will save you running around at last minute to finalize your posts. It will also help ensure that you publish your posts in a timely fashion.

Be flexible to accommodate news, hiccups and other changes

To truly resonate with your business blog readers, you need to respond to marketplace in real time. That means allowing your schedule to be flexible enough to accommodate posts to address a potential issue in your industry. Flag up these news items and potential hiccups to your writer as early as possible.

Using a professional copy writer to help with your business blog can certainly be a great way to deliver quality content for your readers. Following the above steps can help you work in a cost-effective manner.

As business owners, we are likely to find ourselves answering a host of repetitious questions about our industry, our methodology and our business in general. Those questions are fired into us by our current clients, potential customers, suppliers and our colleagues. If we are lucky, we might even field such questions from a local journalist. Generally speaking, we’re happy to provide detailed answers. Sometimes however, we don’t have the time or the patience to answer that question for the 9th time this week. That’s where our business blog steps in to rescue us.

Build an online library of useful answers

As I have mentioned previously, a blog can provide a convenient method of converting business questions into blog posts, but as this topic has come up offline a number of times recently, I wanted to revisit and expanded on my previous post.

When considering how to answer a particular question that we regularly take during the course of our business day, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind.

• Answer the question completely: We’re trying to provide a valuable service to our customers as well as working to be as efficient as possible. If our blog post leaves the reader with more questions than answers, then we have failed on both accounts. That customer will come back to us again with the same question. So, let’s put enough time, energy and thought into the blog post. Have we considered it from our customers’ vantage point? Have we avoided the use of jargon? Have we written in concise and consistent manner?
• Answer the question consistently: The last thing we want to do to appear ignorant or ill-informed on our topic. An inconsistent answer to a question can leave our customers with a less than favorable view of our expertise. Moreover, are we likely to provide the same answer to a client who raises the same question five or six months after they initially asked it? Possibly not. By providing clear and well-written answers to the many questions that our customers put to us, we can ensure that we’re answering consistently, accurately and comprehensively every time.
• Answer the question when not rushed: Answering questions over the phone, across a service counter or on a smart phone, while expedient for sure, is not the best approach to delivering the most accurate answering. By taking the time to answer a question in a detailed blog post, we can produce the answer when we are not distracted or rushed.

Once our answer is published as a blog post, we can direct customers to the specific entry that answers their questions. Then, if that same customer emails with the same question in six months time, we simply email the link to them again. Talk about being efficient with our time!

Revisit our answers

Of course, the accuracy of our written answering might wither with the passage of time. Industry standards change, technologies progress and best practices evolve. We want to make sure that we schedule some time in our work to do list to review our blog answers every six months or so — just to double-check that they are still valid and correct answers.

As an associate of The Governance Partnership, I am privileged to be a guest blogger from time to time on the TGP company blog, intelligently called AOB, or an An Occasional Blog. A dedicated reader of The Governance Partnership blog will surely have noted the increased production of blog posts in recent months, and I have been lucky to slot a couple of my own posts into that publication schedule.

Guest Posts on the TGP Blog

Rather than re-produce my posts here, I thought it would be simpler to post links from here to there.

Preventing One Hit Wonders »

E-Courtesy is good for you »

The Governance Partnership is a communication consultancy offering advice and implementation in public relations, public affairs and innovation management and implementation, founded by Peter Hill and Ross Davies. I’ve worked with Peter and Ross since 2007 or so, combining our respective skills for a number of clients on a variety of web-focused projects.

As always, it’s a real gas working with Peter Hill and Ross Davies. Such great writers and skilled professionals are not common in today’s workplace.

For me, a big part of the day entails speaking with business owners of the commercial value of a small business blog and of social media. When small business owners consider how much time and energy to put into blogging, Twitter, Facebook and others, many want a simple magic formula to determine their return on investment.  Is there some equation like x number of blogs per month = y% in business growth.

Alas, if only it were that easy. The truth is that many factors contribute to the success of an online marketing campaign.  As Mike Volpe, the Chief Marketing Officer at HubSpot noted, the return on investment will be greater, the more time and energy a business owner spends on an inbound marketing campaign.

Yet to give some sense of what is possible for a small business to achieve, I am sharing a short list of just some of the tangible benefits (read commercial benefits) that I have achieved through blogging and other social media.  I’ve been blogging since March 2007 and on Twitter since April 2008.  I was on Facebook before I started this blog but as I don’t maintain a professional presence there, I’ll leave it out of this blog.

1. Discount on training (Twitter): On at least one occasion, I was able to take advantage of a last minute offer on a training course relating to CSS. It was a 1/3 discount off the total course fee and was only offered on Twitter.
2. Promotional opportunities (Twitter + Blog): On a number of instances, I have used a combination of blog posts to encourage large, publicly-traded companies with global reach to promote my business on their avenues of communication with their own customers. Those avenues include their respective websites, Twitter feeds and even their customer-facing and focused print magazine.
3. Discount on business software (Twitter + Blog): On at least one occasion, I have received a discount from a major business software company by communicatin directly with the company on Twitter and email.  More specifically, I noted an error in their shopping cart functionality and flagged it that up to them discretely via email. The company then gave me early access (pre-public launch) to a Twitter sale on their software.
4. Introductions to valuable business contacts (Twitter + Blog): Through a number of blogs that I run and others that I visit, I have made real-life contacts with business professionals who have helped open doors, share insight and provide business value to my company. To date, I have met three such contacts that I would not have otherwise met — all through blogs and Twitter.
5. Learned time-saving techniques and practices (Twitter): Twitter is a great tool for sharing links to ‘how to’ articles. Over the years, I have picked up countless tips and techniques that have enabled me to work smarter, faster and more efficiently.

In sharing this list, I hope to inspire a few of those reluctant business people to start a company blog, open a company Twitter account and get active on LinkedIn or other social media websites.

In sharing the Life of a Blog Post that my colleagues and I at lbdesign recently created, I am asked repeatedly: What is DuckDuckGo? None of my clients or close friends seem to be aware of DuckDuckGo or how it could benefit them. Why did we include a relative unknown like DuckDuckGo in an illustration with such big hitters as Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? To answer those questions, I thought it best to publish a detailed answer. (Not familiar with the full illustration of Life of a Blog Post?)

In the interest of transparency, the timing of this post is aimed at taking advantage of a competition from DuckDuckGo. While I’m not overly concerned about winning the competition, I wouldn’t mind a t-shirt.

DuckDuckGo in a nutshell

As a search tool, DuckDuckGo (DDG) harnesses the powers of a number of important sites like Wikipedia, About, Bing, and Yahoo to deliver a more comprehensive and perhaps a better rounded list of search results to its users.

The Google search filter

As a communications designer, I work with businesses to develop and implement their online marketing strategies. A key part of that work entails blogging, targeting specific topics and keywords to help clients grow their respective online presence. As Google tailors search results based on how a user interacts with the delivered results from a search, a sort of bubble develops around that user. The more a user clicks on a certain type of result, the more that Google delivers that sort of result to the user. While that can be helpful at times, but it can also hide key content from a user.

DuckDuckGo looks to counteract the Google bubble by not filtering our search results. It does not record or track our searches, or our search result selections, so it avoids closing us off from potentially relevant and useful content.

As a blogger and as a consultant offering online marketing strategy advice and implementation assistance, I think it’s important for my clients to be aware of the filter bubble. The filter certainly affects search engine optimization (SEO) tactics. Placing the DDG logo on our Life of a Blog Post has enabled me to introduce filter bubbles to my clients, and to explain about DuckDuckGo.

A matter of privacy

About six months ago or so, I suddenly began noticing how ads related to my previous Google searches started appearing in the margins of my Yahoo mail account.

What I discovered is that Google uses my search information to help advertisers direct what Google believes to be relevant ads to my attention. While this isn’t the post to consider whether or not I approve of what Google does with my search information, I decided that I wanted a different experience.

When I researched DuckDuckGo, I discovered a thought-provoking web page detailing how privacy concerns could prove difficult. The possibility of real world hurdles that might evolve as a result of Google searches is a bit scary.

So, I started using DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine. I’ve updated my Firefox settings to make DDG the default search engine for Firefox.

More bits about DuckDuckGo

There is definitely a lot more to DuckDuckGo than I have detailed here. Below are just a few links to help you learn more about it.

1. DuckDuckGo does not track users: http://donttrack.us
2. It offers a number of enhancements allowing for shortcuts and quick access to our technical stuff.
3. It was started by a local developer and businessman, Gabriel Weinberg.

Some of my favorite shortcuts

Although I am still learning my way around the many shortcuts available on DuckDuckGo, here are a few that I use regularly:

• !m = Google maps
• !gi = Google images
• !yt = YouTube
• !whois = Who Is search

Go on, give it a try

My suggestion is that you give DuckDuckGo a two month trial to see if you like it better than Google. And do let me know your thoughts.

Get directions on how to change the browsers default search tool.

The power of WordPress has long influenced me as a designer and a blogger. Although I have used other content management systems (CMS) to build websites and write blogs, WordPress stands out among many in part because of its amazing community. Having just returned from WordCamp Philly, I was very impressed not only by the skill of many of the designers and developers using WordPress, but also by their willingness to share their respective expertise. It was an exciting and productive learning environment — and I feel lucky to have been able to attend.

As a conference, WordCamp Philly was aimed at WordPress people of all levels: basic users, designers and hard core developers. During the day I met a number of users who rely on WordPress for promoting their small businesses. The power of its CMS, combined with the dynamic and generous support community, make WordPress an ideal choice for many smaller businesses considering how best to manage and grow their web presence.

As a designer who considers the on-going needs and requirements of clients on a daily basis, I was heartily impressed by the WordPress community at WordCamp. From the organizers (none of whom were paid), to the event sponsors, to the presenters, to the attendees, the day was a series of insightful exchanges of knowledge, experience and best practices. I was surprised by the lack of ego at the conference — it really was as though everyone was in the same boat and rowing in the same direction. That community strength made a powerful impression on me and will definitely figure into my conversations when discussing CMS options with clients.

In the coming days, I shall be reviewing my notes from the sessions that I attended over the weekend. I aim to post a more detailed synopsis of my experience at WordCamp Philly. I’ll be sure to include links to the presentations and other cool stuff that I encountered.