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The push and pull of blog promotion: Part 2

After making progress with the art of pushing blog content to readers, it was time to drag more people directly to my blog. I required readers on my blog in order to increase the odds of collecting valuable feedback about the writing content, and to build momentum for future advertising revenue opportunities. To drag readers to my blog, I employed the strategies of pull marketing, with a ’social’ flare.

Social-izing Pull Marketing

Including the post link in a communication is intended to pull viewers directly to your content. An interest-sparking headline or lead-in prompts the reader to click to follow the content. If the writing fulfills its promise, visitors might be motivated to read other posts and become dedicated followers. If there are ads on the site that entice, viewer clicks may earn income for blog ads that represent a revenue source.

Pulling readers to your blog site provides the opportunity to create more loyal followers and potential for ad clicks. Since most advertising deals pay per click, more volume equals greater revenue. Once a viewer is on your site, they may also ‘like’, ‘share’ and ‘tweet’ your content so that other members of their network learn about the blog. Referrals are a great way to gain new readers. Having the credibility of the source contact increases the odds of connecting with their network audience.

The downside of pull marketing is relying on continued revisits from your readers. Since they will not be receiving an email or RSS feed notifying of the new post, their loyalty must be relied upon. This strategy requires them to make a decision to view each time they see notice of a new post through social media. To increase the odds they will continue to make an affirmative choice, quality post announcements are essential.

With pull promotion, the pitch that entices a reader to click must be enticing and succinct. For example, I recently wrote a blog post asking for opinions about telling my 8 year old how the Easter Bunny really delivers goodies to our home. The other option I have to deal with the truth is waiting until she hears something at school and decides to ask me. My actual question to readers was, “Do I tell my daughter the truth about the Easter Bunny?” My social media pitch, along with the blog link was, “Do I tell?”

Both are truthful, which is vital. A pitch that suggests something untrue about the content will make the reader feel they have been tricked into visiting your blog. The second pitch is more tempting for a wider audience of readers. If a reader is not interested in weighing in on the Easter Bunny decision, there is still the opportunity to entice them with another post on the site, since the pitch pulled them to your vast collection of content.

To push or to pull – that is the question. The answer is both. A balanced combination of both strategies will maximize the outcome. The size and quality of the promotion investment will be reflected in the results. The cost of marketing your blog content is almost entirely human resources. It takes a significant amount of time on the social media sites to organically develop relationships that are authentic.

Each site has its communication methods, language and etiquette. Social media experts debate the pros and cons of repeating content on multiple social media platforms. One point all social savvy individuals seem to agree on is the inevitable importance of these platforms for any business to compete.

 

Next column: Tweet to Compete

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The push and pull of blog promotion: Part 1

How could I grow my blog audience? Outside of the following of friends, family and colleagues, it was time to source methods of attracting new readers. I had been using Facebook for the sole purpose of social connecting. I had registered a Twitter handle months before, but had sent fewer than a dozen tweets. I was intimidated by the new language and etiquette that were quite foreign.

It was time to marry my traditional marketing experience with practical use of social media. I needed to find ways to both get the posts out to readers and bring them directly to the blog site. This stage of “going social” started to feel like I was driving in my own lane again.

I went to my marketing roots for direction. Traditional marketing defines the push and pull strategy as the seller’s push of a product or service to the consumer, compared to the pull of said commodity by that consumer. The push could be a store sending me a flyer to sell shoes, versus my pull of calling the store to inquire about a sale of shiny red pumps.

Social media adds a new layer to push and pull marketing. It drives consumers to action from the convenience of their own computer, tablet or smartphone. Books are downloaded and read without ever visiting the bookstore. Travel is arranged over the internet and via email communications. Merchants for clothing, jewelry and so much more rely on the ability to both push offers to buyers and pull buyers to their sites for instant deals to be closed.

TIP: In this era of immediate gratification, it is more critical than ever for sellers to have a succinct pitch to ignite that deal. After much trial and error, I learned to spark interest in 100 words or less.

Social-izing my push marketing

Posting a picture or details of a promotion pushes product over social media to potential buyers. One may choose to receive information from a supplier by being a Twitter follower or ‘liking’ a business page on Facebook. A seller may expect you are a partially qualified purchaser, in that you have indicated an interest by agreeing to participate.

In order for a prospect to gain qualifications, a seller needs to know if they are interested in the product or service, do they have the authority to make a purchase decision, and do they have the funds to buy. If the supplier has created a “sponsored post” on Facebook or a “promoted Tweet” on Twitter, the audience is unqualified and considered mass market, with which the deal close ratio is much smaller.

I wasn’t ready to invest cash into a sponsored promotion. Since I needed the practical experience with Facebook and Twitter, I invested many hours of my time learning the tricks of the tools. Once the skills started to develop, both sites became rather addicting. Making likeminded connections is a natural activity. Learning to authentically attract followers to push content toward took more time.

Communicating on ‘The Social’ needs to be true to its name, social communication. The conversation is friendly chitchat where people with common interests share thoughts, quotes and resources that might be of importance to the audience. The goal is motivating people to sign up for your blog without sounding like you are begging for followers or being too pushy.

The benefit of pushing content out is the consistency of reader contact. The blogger maintains control of how often content is viewed. It is critical to achieve balance between keeping the audience interested and informed, yet avoiding inundating them with an overwhelming amount of information and risking pushing them away. Empathy is a key quality in achieving that balance. Put yourself in the position of your audience. Does your content offer something beneficial or is it completely self-serving? Followers want to know that they are being put first.

The downside of push marketing is that you are playing on the purchaser’s turf, as opposed to your own. For example, pushing out an email or RSS feed sends the most current content to a reader, but it does not entice the audience with other posts or advertisements that might be seen if the reader was pulled to your own blog site.

Part two of promotion will explore how I went from “being pushy” to dragging people to my blog with pull marketing tactics. Subtlety is not my greatest strength, but I’m adjusting.

 

Next column: The Push and Pull of Blog Promotion: Part 2

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8 disgustingly homophobic tweets about George Smitherman’s missing husband

Because someone’s missing spouse is apparently an opportunity to show off your ignorance.

While George Smitherman has broken down barriers as one of the first openly gay big-name politicians in Toronto and Ontario it is sad to see that so little has changed over the years, namely the media’s inability to cover the story of his husbands two day disappearance without improperly using the term “partner” instead of “husband” and trying to dig out some sort of drama or scandal from the parents of a missing man.

To title a story on any missing person as being about their so-called ‘on-again off-again relationship‘ — which, in the frame of the article, refers to their relationship before getting serious a decade ago — is so utterly tasteless , tabloid, and would most likely not be the case if this story were about a straight couple.

One basic rule to identify news from simple events is to spot the unusual. If a dog bites a man, it isn’t news. If a man bites a dog, however, it is. What is increasingly evident with the coverage surrounding Christopher Peloso’s disappearance is that the media coverage surrounding it from the start was due to the fact that George Smitherman was once the second in command of this province and almost held the top spot in Toronto, but that that continued coverage was due to the news media and the newsreading public having a sick hard on for the drama surrounding the personal lives of a gay family.

The fact that this is a gay couple and a gay family and a gay person missing is what makes the story a ‘man-bites-dog’ and that is totally unacceptable.

To the mainstream media: Trying not to be offensive and failing at it is still offensive.

On top of all that professional incompetence comes the deluge of hate filled tweets directed at a man and his family who, at the time these were posted, were most likely experiencing the most harrowing moment of their lives.

Read on to lose faith in humanity.

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

 

Check out:

16 slut-shaming tweets about Miley — and 5 more about her inviting rape

Mark Towhey continues to be one of the funniest people on Twitter

5 amazing tweets from the Toronto Public Library

30 disturbing and disgusting tweets about Jason Collins coming out

50 most disgusting responses to Toronto’s male rape victim

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What is Mayor Rob Ford doing while the city floods? Enjoying A/C in his car

 

With the city paralyzed, flooded, immobile, and soaked it should of course come as no surprise that Mayor Rob Ford is not at the nerve centre of the city doing what he can to get things up and running again. Rob Ford is with his family, without power, crammed into the SUV with the air conditioner on in an attempt to stay cool.

Our mayor’s number one priority in the middle of a weather crisis is his own comfort.

Of course Fordites would respond that ‘he has to look out for his family’ and ‘it is after 5 o’clock’ — but this flies in the face of the concept of being mayor of a major city.

Your job doesn’t end at 5 o’clock.

Your family, albeit without power, has a capable matriarch. This city, on the other hand, has no other head.

Rob Ford has, once again, abandoned not only his responsibility, but his city in a time of need.

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18 Vines from the #StormTO Toronto flood

Toronto was under water this evening as a fast moving storm came from the north and submerged the city. Social media was abuzz with Torontonians in different places around the city chronicling the damage around them and their often stranded situations. Here are 18 Vine videos that capture the full scope of the first half of today’s big storm.

 

You can follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

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Former PC MPP (and current PC candidate) says ‘females’ only vote Liberal because they are uninformed

In the wake of a recent UK study that determined women are less aware of current affairs than men former Progressive Conservative MPP (1995-2003) and current PC candidate for the riding of Kitchener Centre Wayne Wettlaufer may have been over confident when he told Queen’s Park Briefing reporter Ashley Csanady over Twitter that ‘females’ vote Liberal because they are uninformed.

The tweet from the former seat holder, which was quickly deleted, stirred across social media including retweets of the screen grab on Twitter, postings on Reddit, and postings throughout Facebook.

Reporter Csanady was accused on Twitter of inciting the comment with “anti-feminist” talking points, but she staunchly defended her feminist cred — cred which is entirely endorsed by Women’s Post and this writer.

One of the rising young stars of QP Briefing, Kitchener native Csanady cut her teeth on feminist and arts writing in independent publications.

Sounding off on the tweet from Wayne Wettlaufer, we can’t help but think that this politician, left for a decade out of the house to dry, might have just lost himself the ‘female’ vote in 140 characters or less.

It is also worth noting that the English language does in fact have a collective noun for human females: women.

Check out the screencap of the offending tweet below and let us know what you think. Did Wettlaufer go to far by painting women as ignorant?

 

You can follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers and get the latest news on offensive tweets from @WomensPost

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5 amazing tweets from the Toronto Public Library

While we already love the Toronto Public Library for providing us the great service of free knowledge, many people don’t know just how above and beyond TPL goes to make the citizens of this fair city happy.

They already offer a gay literary speed dating program where members of the LGBTQQ community can show up with their favourite book, CD, or DVD to chat with other people about their favourite narrative and, just maybe, discover love. The concept behind this program is absolutely amazing. It’s also hosted right by my house, so if you wind up there and see someone holding a tattered copy of Watchmen come say hi.

TPL also offers a 24/7 Dial-A-Story service where kids can dial in and have a story read to them in 15 different languages, helping kids to feel comfortable and learn even when mom and dad can’t help. Certainly better than kids getting babysat by the TV, that’s for sure.

TPL also has someone fantastic running their Twitter feed. Here are five of the best tweets to come down the pipe recently. We love TPL for…

…The Phrase “If Shakespeare were a hipster”

…Keeping things steamy at the library

…Knowing where to find an owner’s manual for the USS Enterprise

…Asking us the worst mothers we can think of on Mother’s Day

…Helping us figure out how to be a cat

Be sure to follow @TorontoLibrary on Twitter for more literary updates — and follow @WomensPost and @TravMyers while you’re at it.

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5 craziest tweets from Amanda Bynes from the last three days

While we here in Toronto have been watching a meltdown of our own over at city hall poor Amanda Bynes has been steadily losing it south of the border for quite some time.

The star’s Twitter account has been her outlet for a lot of her rambling and rantings, along with racy, sexy photos of herself, not to mention a blow by blow of a surgery she got for something involving her eyes and/or nose that we’re pretty sure no one ever noticed but her.

The starlet, who isn’t really doing much these days after retiring from acting, was arrested Thursday, May 23, in New York City. The cops were called when people complained that she was allegedly rolling and smoking a joint in the lobby. When the cops went up to her apartment on the 36th floor they reportedly saw a bong on the counter. According to the cops she ran to it and threw it out of the window right in front of them.

She says it was just a vase.

Um. Amanda. you can’t do that either.

Here are five of the combative, odd, and confusing tweets she sent out in the days before her arrest.

 

 

 

If you’re following the timeline here it would have been a few hours after that last rant that she allegedly chucked a bong streetside from 36 floors up.
 
You can follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

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30 disturbing and disgusting tweets about Jason Collins coming out

 

Jason Collins shocked the world this week by becoming the first openly gay pro athlete (besides baseball player and inventor of the high-five Glenn Burke who was out to his teammates) and has been met with hate from ignorant people along with the praise he has received.

The hate being spewed at him is sadly not a surprise.

This collection is not intended to change any minds. The people who wrote these tweets think that what they are doing is okay and right, and it would take a lot more than simply holding up a mirror to them to get them to change their minds.

This collection of tweets is intended to open the eyes of anyone who is passively indifferent to gay causes or may be on the fence about vocalising their support for gay people in their lives.

Gay people wake up every day knowing that there are millions of people in the world who hate them for what they are. Gay people in other countries wake up every day unsure if they will be alive at the end of it. Kids here in Canada are bullied to death with words like these.

After reading these please do your part to let your friends and family know that you support gay people and gay rights. Send a positive tweet to Jason Collins, for example, or just do something simple as update your Facebook status to say that you love and care about the gay people in your life.

These are 30 disturbing and disgusting tweets about Jason Collins coming out.

Jason Collins should die

Jason Collins is a Faggot

Jason Collins is disgusting, certainly not a hero

 

Jason Collins will burn in hell

It is attitudes like these that make his coming out all the more important.

Hopefully someday soon a gay athlete, actor, politician, or person won’t require the fanfare, but until then every single gay person needs the reassurance of your love and support. Their life could depend on it.

@travmyers

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