Ok, so I only started blogging in mid 2008 – so that’s only around 18 months – and I opened my Twitter account in October 08 – so again, only just over 12 months of activity.  Have dabbled with Facebook – but still can’t get my head round the business side of things.  However, I’ve been with LinkedIn for a while and have been a regular participant on a number of online forums for a good few years.   In fact, one started over 10 years ago.

Whilst I participate on and am very comfortable with social media platforms – what I am not, is a ‘social media expert’.  What I am, is a pragmatic and experienced marketer (both off and online) – open to and keen to leverage new channels of communication as you would imagine any decent marketer would be, particularly if those channels enable more targeted activity.

Twitter certainly seems to have dominated ‘social media’ platforms and media during 2009 – and piggybacking on the success of Twitter are at least 5 or perhaps even 10 million (or perhaps even more) social media experts!  Where did they all come from?  And what is the definition of a ‘social media expert’?

In fact, without mentioning any names, I recently met a ‘social media expert’ at a networking event – their business card actually stated Social Media Expert underneath their name.   So, in the name of my own personal quest to determine the route and core of social media expertise, I honed the conversation around developing a greater understanding of the competence involved.

What, very quickly, became apparent, was that this expert was participating with social media platforms in a very similar way to me – and had been doing so for a similar amount of time.  Prior to that, they mainly focused on SEO!  ITheir role was to share their social media expertise with clients – assisting them in setting up these channels to market.  Effectively, setting up accounts, setting alerts to make them aware of activity in their particular sector (if relevant).   On a positive note – I suppose labelling yourself as a ‘Social Media Expert’ regardless of your background does indeed communicate a very targeted and relatively still niche expertise – regardless of how ‘young’ that expertise may be.

I wrote a blog post some months ago now – about Implementing a Social Media Strategy – the post was born from activity I’d been undertaking with a client I’ve been working with for about 7 years.   As part of their ‘umbrella’ marketing strategy which covers a whole range of marketing activity (both inbound and outbound) – it was clear that new ‘social media’ platforms were out there for us to leverage.  So, in just the same way, we’d approach any new activity, I researched, strategised and created a social media activity plan which we would look to implement – and nurture.

I follow the words ‘social media’ in my TweetBeep alert and so am always watching what’s being ‘talked about’ in the social media context.  [In fact this resource is really useful for targeted activity see this post] .  From months of observation, what’s very clear is that many organisations are not ‘on board’ with social media – and those that are, it’s all still very fertile territory.

Recently, I’ve noticed that there are definitely more resources out there springing up from marketers and others who are charged with putting together a social media strategy for organisations – however, it’s still very fragmented – people borrowing theory and practice from one another (which is pretty great actually).

I then researched ‘requests’ and ‘job specs’ for what companies are looking for from a ‘social media expert’ – and it pretty much seems to be the following:

1)         Help to set up the various accounts and manage them ongoing

2)         Set up a blog and assist with writing content and share on social media platforms

3)         Brand management – watching what’s being said about their brand(s)

4)         Include social media platforms in campaigns

I haven’t done ‘extensive’ research, so I’m sure there are other elements to add – but enough to get a flavour for what seems to be the general remit of a ‘social media expert’.

Anyone participating on social media platforms is likely to agree that participation and monitoring and keeping on top of the game can be quite time consuming.   In fact, from my own personal experience with clients, it’s the time consummation which seems to be a big turn off for many companies.  ‘How are we going to manage it all?’ – and ‘tada’… hence the rise of the Social Media Expert.

Of course, when things seem too consuming, it’s useful to break them down into bite sized chunks by ‘compartmentalising’ them – and therefore, organisations may well be on the hunt for social media experts to bring into their marketing teams.

In 2010 no doubt more and more digital agencies will be ‘all over’ social media – providing the ‘full social media service’ as an inherent service – indeed, many have already added this to their menu of services.  So not only will Social Media Experts continue to grow – but Social Media Agencies will have a life of their own – swallowing up many of those with social media competence and experience.

As a pragmatic and experienced marketer, I will continue to remain just that – of course, where relevant, as part of the ‘marketing mix’ social media activity will be leveraged – in my view, the platforms are channels for us to leverage.

Social Media activity isn’t something that is done in isolation – it’s part of the marketing strategy and brand communications – it’s got to be joined up, thought through and implemented with the same thought and care as any marketing activity should be.

In my view, social media platforms sit with marketing – part of the marketing mix – and marketing enables strategic planning.  So all in all – be careful how you execute your social media activity.  It’s your brand and reputation out there – be transparent, considered and think it through…

Here’s to watching what happens in 2010!

For marketing news, views, tips and ideas – why not subscribe to my blog http://www.carvillcreative.co.uk/blog – oh and you can always follow me on Twitter.

Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – a graphic design and marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing – covering social media marketing and website planning and website design.

As an avid Twitter user I recently came across a white paper written by Michael Stelzner – it’s the first official ‘marketing industry report’ on social media that I have come across – no doubt many, many more will follow.

The report, titled; How Marketers are using Social Media to Grow their Businesses is most certainly worth a read. It documents the findings of research geared to ‘marketers’ with a sample size of approx 900 participating.

Of course, it is a US sample – but given the context of the questions (behaviour based) – geographical location is pretty much irrelevant.

Whilst I’ve been ‘in marketing’ for over 15 years – I am a relative newbie to Social Media (just about 9 months!). Yes, I’ve been blogging for about 9 months now – and participating in forums for about the same time – and have absorbed myself in Twitter for the past few months.

I’ve never really been a Facebook fan – as when I dabbled some months back – I felt that it was more of a ‘popularity contest’ – (how many friends do I have) rather than a useful resource – and from a B2B perspective, in my view, it still has a lot of ground to break. I had researched Facebook and the other social networks, both established and emerging, quite rigourously – about 18 months ago – as I was (and still am) involved in the development of http://www.bizzbug.com which for me, is a far more practical and useful (not to mention more private) resource.

On Twitter I’ve connected with some really very interesting and useful people. And often I think of myself as a ‘student’ – listening to the wise musings of those that appear to have been part of the social media scene for years!

When digging around however, for research and best practice methodologies and strategies for social media – there’s not much around. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Top 10, Top 20, Top 100 articles (some of which are very useful) – but clearly the territory is still too fertile for established ‘research’ and documented strategies.

I was therefore somewhat comforted to read in Michael Stelzner’s report findings that 72% of those using social media in their business – have only been doing so for a ‘few months or less’.

Further, it was good to see that the main platforms that ‘marketers’ were engaging in were; Twitter, Blogs, Linked-In and Facebook. So the fact that I am active in three out of the four didn’t make me feel too left behind.

I was surprised that Forums didn’t rate higher than they did. I participate in two or three very relevant forums and I find them really useful. Where relevant I can point people to solutions I may have written about in my blog – or to other resources – and answer specific questions, sharing my experience, advice and views. And of course, when stuck or looking for a ‘feel’ on things – then I can pose questions. A forum is far more ‘tightly knit’ than say ‘Twitter’ – and I notice that forum members tend to be genuinely protective of ‘the community space’ – spammers and users on a forum for a quick sell, are quickly given the boot.

It was during a forum thread about Social Media that I came across a tribe of people who are clearly upset that ‘marketers’ have jumped on the social media bandwagon and have bastardised the concept – ruining the platforms for people who want to have genuine conversations and connect. The view was that people were sick of ‘marketers’ muscling in on ‘their’ spaces and that they were going to have to find another means to ‘socialise’!

Now then, I do indeed socialise, I have various groups of friends that I keep in contact with – from days as a singleton living and working in London, to old school friends I’ve known for over 35 years (blimey is it really that long…) and of course, to the fabulous network of ‘mums’ that have assisted my sanity and survival in the epic adventure known as motherhood (and who, thankfully, continue to do so)! Do I ‘Twitter’ with these people, no I do not – do I Facebook (if that’s a term) with these people – no I do not. Do I ‘Link In’ with these people (perhaps a few I was at Business School with and who I don’t really keep in touch with and am interested to see what they’re up to) – but with my ‘friends’ – no, I do not.

Instead - I call them, drop them an email with latest news, send a card and call me crazy, but I meet up with them, organise a quick ‘glass of wine’ – or visit them or invite them to visit me.

Don’t get me wrong, I truly appreciate that there are not enough hours in the day to fit everything in – and email and sharing photos etc (I do this via Bizzbug but I can see how people find FaceBook useful for this purpose too – but it’s a bit open for me [interject here for a mo with a quick Facebook dilemma, I was 'befriended' by a long distant uncle from my husbands side of the family whom I have never met and given his ridiculous postings nor would I wish to – but how do I switch him off without him knowing!]) – anyway the point is that technology certainly helps me nurture friendships when I don’t have the time to call or it’s not logistically feasible to regularly meet up with folks. But it’s certainly no substitute.

And I now regularly ‘speak’ to people online via these channels – but I’d call that ‘networking’ instead of ‘socialising’.

For those that are upset because we ‘terrible marketers’ – are using social media platforms as another communication channel and advising our clients to do the same – my advice is ‘get out more’ – (in the nicest possible way…).

I’ve written a couple of posts about how I am using social media, both personally and with one particular client of mine.

As I mentioned before – I’m involved with a social media resource www.bizzbug.com – and when putting together the strategic model for growth the team behind Bizzbug considered the growth framework:

• Influencers
• Early adopters
• Early majority
• Laggards (late comers)

Even though the main social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked In have significant numbers of users (we’re talking millions) – if we categorise Marketers as ‘Influencers’ – advising their clients and contacts to leverage these platforms and educating them in doing so – and given that 72% of marketers surveyed stated that they’ve only been using social media platforms as part of their marketing for the past ‘few months’ – then that would suggest that we really are only scratching the surface of what’s to come…

And to cement my thinking, I recently read a great post by Seth Godin ‘The Paradox Of The Middle Of The Market’‘ – in essence the article focuses on the importance of designing products/services which are ‘interesting’ enough to be picked up by the Influencers – but that have practical appeal with the all important ‘middle market’.

When products/services cross the chasm – (as Twitter is now doing/has possibly already done) – then those ‘first users’ – can feel left out – almost cheated (by those nasty marketers)! But actually, it’s naive to think that the guys behind Twitter didn’t design the product without the vision of the all important middle market in mind. Not many products and services do cross the chasm – but when they do – boy do they reap the rewards.

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/michellecarvill and for instant blog updates, why not subscribe to my blog. Simply visit and insert your email address top right hand corner. It’s packed with marketing news, view, ideas, free stuff, twitter icons and badges and advice – so take a look round.

Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – a graphic design and marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing – covering social media marketing and website planning and website design.

As a marketer with a mantra of ‘be targeted’ – then I always raise an eyebrow when I receive messages from Twitter followers advising me how to get 1000 new followers in 48 hours! And, I certainly don’t follow back those on Twitter who clearly only have the goal of creating a huge number of followers (but to what end!).

I find Twitter a really useful resource – but that’s because I am following – and largely being followed, in a targeted way.

I’ve conversed with my followers to bounce ideas around and get feedback from – and given that I am talking to a relatively targeted audience – then it’s all highly relevant.

To assist me in my targeted strategy – I’ve been using TweetBeep (http://www.tweetbeep.com) – I am aware that there are other alert apps out there – but this is the one I started with – and it’s doing the job marvellously.

Effectively, I use the alert process for a number of things:

• I set my alerts on certain keywords that are relevant to my interests, eg: user experience, social media marketing, usability and online psychology.
• I get alerted via a TweetBeep email each time these keywords are triggered.
• This allows me to read through the messages –check out who the people are – and decide whether to follow them or not. If relevant, I do.
• It’s also been really useful in identifying areas where I can assist and share information. For example – when I saw messages from people looking for a social media strategy outline – I was able to send across a document I had put together. Without the TweetBeep, I wouldn’t have been able to help. I add value to them, they then start following me – subscribe into my blog etc – they’ve found a ‘relevant’ contact.
• Likewise – I’ve found relevant contacts in the same way – and have found some really useful people to follow.
• It also enables me to monitor my own ‘reach’. I often come across my own tweets – being shared across the network by people who are not necessarily following me. And of course, if you set an alert in your own name/twitter handle – then you’ll get alerted on these too.

Of course, when I do follow a new user – then I always check out who they are following – this enables me to grow the people I follow in a targeted way. Like often attracts like – and I am finding that many of the people I am connecting with – are also following in a targeted way – so hence – in their followers, I am finding a great pool of relevant contacts for me to explore.

You can set the alerts on anything which is relevant to you – and so if you too have a targeted strategy, rather than a ‘follow anyone in the hope they too have a follow all strategy and have autofollow set ‘ one – you can watch the relevant conversations that are taking place – and then decide how and whether to participate.

The TweetBeep alerts are pretty instantaneous – and so not only relevant but timely. As I said – there are other alerts out there – and I am told that Tweetdeck has this facility within it.

So, whichever, alert you go for – my advice is cut through the noise and ‘get targeted’.

For more marketing news, views, strategies and advice – then why not subscribe to my blog

Or follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/michellecarvill

Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – a graphic design and marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing – covering social media marketing and website planning and website design.

]]> http://www.carvillcreative.co.uk/blog/get-targeted-with-your-social-media-audience/feed/ 3 http://www.carvillcreative.co.uk/blog/social-media-add-it-to-your-mix-5-things-to-do-right-now/ http://www.carvillcreative.co.uk/blog/social-media-add-it-to-your-mix-5-things-to-do-right-now/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:11:15 +0000 admin http://?p=497 Tweet

It’s likely that you are familiar with most of the ‘traditional’ marketing practices; direct mail, email marketing, advertising, telesales, pr etc – however, for a few years now, given the opportunities the internet provides, the term ‘new marketing’ has been bandied around.   If we think of traditional marketing as ‘push’ marketing – mediums we use to push our messages onto others ‘interupting’ them, then the new marketing relates to ‘pull’ marketing – marketing activities we do which ‘attract’, as a magnet would, interested parties, at their own accord, to view our wares.

Pull activities include; blogging, social media networks (think Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Bizzbug, Ning, Xing, My Space) actively participating in forums; (http://www.UKbusinessforum.co.uk, socialmediatoday, ukbusinesslabs, womensmarketingforum), making your information more widely available via resources such as Digg, Blogburst and others – effectively, sharing your knowledge, know-how, experiences, advice, contacts, news, views and opinions to build interest in who you are, what your business is about, what you do – with the hope that users grow to follow what you say and  are encouraged to buy and refer – effectively, building ‘positive share of mind’ – in an online and hopefully viral way!

Social Media activity is not a direct sell – it’s a bit of a slow burner – and in just the same way as we practice traditional marketing, it’s not something that you do in isolation.  For maximum impact, it’s wise to work the social media mediums in an integrated way.

Here’s our my 5 tips for getting started and integrating just some of  what’s available:  (Believe me, if you stretch yourself too far, it becomes a full time job just trying to keep on top of it all).

1. Create a blog. A blog is a great way to share what you do and what you provide with others – and it’s an opportunity to build your brand by being open and getting your ‘business’s personality’ across.  With blogging you have to keep at it – posting articles ideally 2 or 3 times a week.  Attach your blog to your website – and it’s a great way to constantly refresh your site.  Positive for users and search engines.   WordPress www.wordpress.com is a user friendly blog resource and you can get started pretty quickly.  See my 20 tips for successful blog writing post for more info on blogging!
2. Join Twitter. Yes we agree, initially it seems strange – but once you get into it, you’ll start to connect with likeminded people.  Again, it takes a while.  Set up an account, share news about your business and your life (a delicate balance as you don’t want to come across as a hard sell) – and see what happens.  www.twitter.com – why not also promote links to your latest blog posts via this media too.
3. Digg. If you are creating articles for your blog on a regular basis – you can register with Digg and post your articles there too.  You only post a link to your article – and so there’s no duplicate content issue – and who knows, dependent upon what you’re reporting on, you may hit the jackpot and get to their front page where millions of users will see it!  www.digg.com
4. Forums. Get involved with relevant forums.  The www.UKbusinessforums.co.uk covers a range of topics and is well subscribed.  People often post requests for help on business projects, printers, designers etc – and so as well as getting and giving advice, you may also pick up some new business.  Why not also promote links to your latest blog post here too.
5. Social Networks.  More and more businesses are using Facebook and YouTube to promote their businesses – and there are other useful online resources such as LinkedIn (helping to find business contacts, projects and seek referral) and www.bizzbug.com – a useful and powerful ‘intranet’ style collaboration resource.  Take a look at what other businesses are doing on these sites – and consider what would work for you.

So get started and become a social ‘media’ ite today!

For more marketing news, views, tips and advice – why not subscribe to my marketing blog – – it’s easy…

Best wishes

Michelle

Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – a graphic design and marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing – covering social media marketing and website planning and website design.

Now then, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s a rare occasion that I get to sit down and relax in front of the TV in the evening. But thanks to the wonderful Sky+ then at least once a week, I can quell my addiction to Masterchef and watch the qualifying rounds.

Any fellow Masterchef fan, will know that there is an hour long programme on the Thursday of each week – whereby the qualifiers for that week battle it out for a place in the semi-final. Anyway – it’s now final week – and so having had a busy day in London, I decided to have some respite from my laptop, Twitter, blog, bizzbug and all other such distractions/resources that keep me busy of an eve – and catch up on Masterchef.

Glass of wine, selection of mini Green & Blacks (left over from Valentine’s) 2 hours of Masterchef to catch up on – what more respite could one ask for.

All was going well – until the recorded programmes ended – and I switched momentarily from Sky+ to regular TV. WHAM – I was hit with the most ridiculous programme – which I still find incredulous that anyone could even think up – let alone commission and televise!

Paris Hilton’s UK Best Friend. OMG (clearly watching it for the 10 mins I did rubbed off)! What is it that all about? Now – having just raved on about Masterchef for far too long – then you know that I enjoy the occasional ‘reality’ show – but Paris’s show crosses all the boundaries of entertainment.

I sat with utter gobsmacking amazement whilst a sofa filled with girls and one chap waited anxiously, nail biting with tears in their eyes to be told who was the most ‘fakest’ and the most ‘real’. All the time the wondrous Paris looked on with doe eyes and Barbie doll posture…

And joy of joys – the winner – the one deemed the ‘most real’ – (not even use of genuine – note!) – got to go out and have ‘sushi and hang out’ – with Paris! WOW, what an honour!

Oh dear. What is TV coming to… that such blah blah nonsense is televised – and what lack of self esteem that those people must have to want to sign up to be humiliated in this way. And why oh why would anyone revere Paris Hilton – what’s her angle – she’s loaded and that’s it? The hype of celebrity gone bonkers. Yet here I am mentioning it in my blog – giving it even more oxygen – or carbon monoxide, rather!

Interestingly, earlier that week my husband had asked me why I enjoyed blogging, tweeting, sharing online –

what was I getting from it, personally, commercially? Weren’t we just creating such a volume of noise that everyone tunes out? He questioned, the purpose – was it the ‘celebrity’ mentality – that perhaps we’re all shouting about what we do, who we are because we all want to get noticed?

Well – I’ll ponder on that for a while – but one thing’s for sure – whilst the TV churns out such a huge amount of tripe – thank the planets that we have other sources to turn to for social stimulation.

Marketing news, views, tips and advice (and sometimes some good old fashioned ranting!) subscribe to my blog

Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – a graphic design and marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing – covering social media marketing and website planning and website design.

I’m a relatively new blogger – having only been blogging for the past 6 months, but my passion for blogging is relentless and my appetite HUGE.  I’ve learned quite a bit about blogging over the past few months – and and keen to continue with this curve.  But meanwhile, I thought I’d share my ‘hands on’ Top 20 tips with you:

1) Keep your posts relatively short. Having researched blogging to a good degree – then 500-800 words seems to be a good benchmark.  Short and concise is ok.

2) Keep your posts varied. Have some posts that are very factual – drawing on information that will help the users. Make some light and humorous so that the user understands that whilst you know your stuff, you’re not taking life too seriously. And they get an insight to your personality. Make some posts a little controversial or challenging the user – to stimulate conversation.

Prior to this post I ran a series of Marketing Plan Template posts – breaking up a plan template I created – not sure this was the best way to do things as I lost a subscriber (ouch) but hey, you live and learn.

3) Always watch your spellings. Poor spelling really does hinder credibility.

4) Use images in a post to break up the text and add some relevant interest. Check out www.flickr.com or www.istockphoto.com or www.fotolia.co.uk for some cheap yet very good quality shots.

5) Create interesting headings. The piece of advice I came across (Hubspot webinar which was pretty useful) advised that you should write the headline imagining that the user won’t even see the article. So the headline has to grab attention and tell the story.

6) Use keywords where you can – in headers and throughout the content of the article.

7) Keep it going. Stick to a tight publishing schedule. Blogging pays off over time – it’s a marathon rather than a sprint and it takes time to build up relevant and optimised content. I set my schedule to publish 3 times a week.  And I’ve posted twice today, which is unusual!

Insert a call to action such as Subscribe to Blog on the site so that users can easily subscribe. I use www.feedblitz.com but there are many others www.feedburner.com is popular too.

9) Claim your blog on Technorati – Google Blogsearch and Technorati are the two main ways that people search for blogs. That way others can find your blog.

10) Promote links to your blog on your website and in email footers, businesscards and other off and online relevant marketing materials.

11) Get your blog noticed by publishing links on social media vehicles such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Linked In (all social spaces relevant to your industry).

12) Try and provide one piece of practical ‘how to’ advice in each blog post. That way the user will learn that you are always going to provide something useful.

13) Don’t focus your posts around selling your products – users will switch off to this. What you should be focusing on is positioning yourself as someone, or a business, that is able to share advice, news and information which will prove useful to your readers. Remember, blogging is not about directly ‘selling’ your services – it’s a platform where you can advise and share information and knowledge about your products, services or expertise. Perfect ‘conversational’ marketing.

14) Be creative with where you procure your content – if you have published materials offline, then recreate them online. Duplicate content is a spiders web and I’m still figuring out what you can and can’t do (more on that in a later post) but what is clear is that you can post links to your site – and encourage the user to read the entire post via your site. (Hence why a great attention grabbing headline is necessary!). Top 10, 20 lists are good (hey, I’m practising what I preach) – but keep your posts mixed, don’t make every post a list! (Back to point 2 above).

15) Write short excerpts of your blog post – not duplicating the content – but summarising what your post and blog is about. Creating a short excerpt which is unique content each time, is a good tactic for giving users a taste of what the blog post is about, enables you to use keywords within the excerpt – and you can post this to social media sites to share news about your blog in a safe (non duplicate content way).

16) Follow the leader – if you find a respected and popular blogger/expert who focuses on areas you are interested in, your business area, subject etc – then write a post commenting on their post. Always cite the name of the author and provide the url directly back to the post you are talking about. This way you are joining ‘high volume’ and relevant and targeted conversations. And if you’re views matter – then they will be picked up on by others reading the ‘leaders’ blog. I haven’t been doing this – so can’t provide you with any direct feedback on how this works. But it’s a tactic that seems to make sense and I do follow certain bloggers and so I will start commenting and citing their opinions in future blog posts and see if that provides any traction to my blog.

17) As well as having a formal call to action – such as subscribe to blog, always ensure you include a link at the bottom of your blog post encouraging the user to subscribe and citing your blog’s URL. You’ll see that I do this below… (don’t forget to use the http:// before the www. url to ensure it links).

18) Be prepared to review lots of blogs, see what’s working for others and learn about blogging the hands on way. I’m new to blogging and whilst I love it – I learn new things about it every day… I don’t have to accept everything I read – but I am open to learning.

19) Join relevant forums and start joining in conversations – I recently joined http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk – and I throw in a blog post thread into the forum for debate. I recently did this with a post titled: Is your ringtone part of your personal brand. It caused quite a response on the forum – and is still adding traction to my blog. I don’t recommend doing this every time you are on the forum as people will think you are just there to flog your blog – but you can throw a post in occasionally, particularly if it’s worthy of debate – or relevant to a topic.

20) Always keep the user in mind. Remember, people are more interested in what you can do for them than what you do – so add value via your blog posts – and they will come and keep coming…

Happy blogging.

For more marketing news, views, tips and advice why not subscribe to my blog

Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – a graphic design and marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing – covering social media marketing and website planning and website design.

]]> http://www.carvillcreative.co.uk/blog/20-tips-for-successful-blog-writing-from-a-relatively-new-blogger/feed/ 6