photo credit: 顔なし

Since my last post about how I add followers on Twitter, I’ve received some questions about the metrics I use to choose who to follow back (or not). Then I posted a tweet that generated a much bigger response than I expected:

Can’t believe how many “Internet Marketing experts” follow me who obviously have no concept of Twitter etiquette. Not so impressive.

Based on the flurry of “are you talking about me?!?” messages I got, I clarified:

Specifically talking about the (self-proclaimed!) experts who are following 2k, followed by 15, and only tweet links to their own sites.

Still, it made me realize that many new Twitterers don’t really know what the culture is like, and they’re trying to get started without adequate information and wondering if they’re inadvertently offending people. (Although, honestly, if you’re worried about offending people, you’re already better off than the people who just charge ahead regardless!)

Some people will tell you that you can do anything you want on Twitter, because people have a choice about following you. That’s true, but presumably you’re not hanging out Twitter just to yell into a void; most people hope to get something from it (whether that’s friends, interesting conversation, website traffic, or leads). There are things you can do (or not do) that make your time on Twitter more effective.

Of course, these guidelines are my opinions only; hopefully others will weigh in with comments or posts of their own.

Figure out who you want to connect with and why

What are your goals for using Twitter? You might want to get new clients, or you might just want to find funny sites and videos to amuse yourself. Many people use Twitter with the hope of getting more blog readers (probably most of this blog’s readers fall in that category!). Those are just a couple of examples.

Think about the kind of people who can help you move towards your goals. If you are looking for more readers or clients, then you probably want to connect with people who are similar to your existing readers or clients—people who need to know something you are an expert in.

If you’re looking for entertainment, you’ll want people who are on top of the latest viral videos and send things before everyone’s seen them.

Once you know what you want out of Twitter, you’ll be much better prepared to make connections and participate intelligently.

Post regularly on topics of interest to your followers

Okay, so you might not have anyone following you yet. Pretend you do, and that they’re the people you really want to connect with. Then write your tweets for their benefit. What kinds of things do they want to hear about?

This doesn’t mean you can’t ever post updates on frivolous, personal stuff—that’s par for the course on Twitter. But keep your tweets somewhat balanced, and try to make your frivolous updates as interesting as you can.

This brings up the point of sending out updates about your blog posts: do it in moderation. Start by being realistic. Not every post you write is that great—so save the impact for the ones that really deserve attention. By picking and choosing, you’re showing respect for your followers and highlighting your best work.

Again, balance is key. Figure a minimum of maybe five to ten “normal” tweets per link to your own work. These other tweets can point to other people’s work that is interesting, or quick comments on something, anything useful to your followers, but remember that people will follow you when they get some benefit from doing so.

When you send out an update about your blog post, try and make it interesting and help people understand why they should care. If your post answers a question, use that question as an intro. This is always more helpful than just saying “My latest blog post: ” and throwing in the link. (And yes, this usually means sending these updates manually, rather than using an auto-tweet service. If you’re being selective, you’ll be sending them manually anyway.)

Start slowly

The temptation is always there to follow everyone and anyone in hopes that they’ll follow you back. This generally doesn’t work.

The main reason is what we call “social proof”: if you follow thousands of people and have very few people following you, you look incredibly boring. People subconsciously think, “Wow, nobody cares what this person is saying,” and write you off.

And that’s the most charitable version. If your tweets look entirely self-promotional, or you don’t have any updates, they’ll assume you’re a spammer and that you are only following people to accost them.

Let’s face it: we’re all approaching Twitter with a measure of self-interest. If we didn’t hope to get something out of it, it wouldn’t be worth spending time there. So from a purely self-interest perspective, realize that you’ll be much more effective at reaching whatever Twitter goals you may have if you are a little bit strategic about the process.

The best approach is to follow a few people, keep posting great updates, and be patient. When a few people follow you, follow a few more people. It’s easiest to start with those you already know or have something in common with (like location—I’ll follow almost anyone from my town).

When you’re expanding the people you follow, look at your profile page critically. Will the people you want to connect with see an obvious “hook” in your recent tweets? Will they immediately understand why they should follow you? If not, post something better.

Some of you more analytical types are probably wondering: exactly how many people should I follow? I’d say start with 30 or fewer, and then keep it to a ratio of 2:1 (following:followers), erring on the side of following fewer people. Obviously that’s arbitrary and just my opinion, but that’s what I’d do if it was me.

Engage with others

This is the whole point. If you’re not interacting with others, you might as well be muttering to yourself.

Pay attention to the people you are following who particularly interest you (if you want technical tips on how to do this, let me know and I’ll post something). When they send out a good tweet, use the @reply feature and tell them so.

Ask questions, and listen to the answers. Thank people who help you out or provide you with good ideas. Pass on particularly useful tweets that your followers might find helpful.

If you forget about trying to follow a kajillion people and instead focus your time on helping the people who already follow you, you’ll find you get more followers without much effort at all.

When I refer to blog design on this page, I’m specifically talking about the part of the process that happens in a graphics program like Photoshop or Fireworks. The part that happens after that (where I take the design file and turn it into a working design) is what I refer to as coding—and a lot of designers aren’t interested in that at all (which is fine by me!).

Elements of a blog design

I’m going to start by defining some terms that I use when talking about blog elements.

• The header is the section at the top of the blog that comes before any of the blog’s actual content. It often contains elements like…
  • The blog title usually describes the blog. Sometimes this is also simply the name of the main site if the blog is just part of a bigger site.
  • The tagline clarifies the purpose of the blog (or sometimes just provides a laugh).
  • Many blogs have navigation near the top of the blog to help visitors find their way around.
• The main content in a blog is its posts. Posts usually contain some or most of these items…
  • The post title communicates quickly the point of the post. It’s like an email subject line.
  • The post content is the “article” that gives the post purpose. It’s like the body of an email.
  • Information about the post is called metadata. The following are examples of metadata…
    • Most blogs feature the date and/or time the post was written to help readers gain context.
    • Categories and/or tags help the reader quickly determine the topic and find more posts on the same topic.
    • Blogs that allow comments provide a link to read and write them.
    • The name of the post’s author helps readers associate the post with a specific person. This is essential on blogs with more than one author, and helpful even on single-author blogs.
• Most blogs have one or more sidebar. The sidebar is a place for information and tools that go beyond specific posts. The sidebar is made up of…
  • Widgets are self-contained chunks of information that the blog owner can add and move around.
• The footer contains more “meta” information, typically about the whole blog rather than just a post. It usually has…
  • A copyright notice to protect the content.
  • Credit links to the people or tools who make the blog possible.
  • The footer might also have links to privacy policies, important pages, or contact information.

It is helpful to look at some working blogs to see these elements in action. Click on the images below to see annotated screenshots.

Standard blog layout concepts

When you’re working on a blog design, you’re typically working with “theoretical” content. Because they are dynamic, you never know what the blog owner is going to put in, so you have to design for many possibilities, while also showing enough variations to make it clear to the coder what you intend.

It’s a good idea to show anything and everything that’s different from just plain text. That includes regular links (think color, style, and what it will look like when the mouse moves over it), lists of information (do you want to use a cute little bullet? dotted lines between items?), and images in posts (should it have a border? how much space should be between the image and the text around it?) among others.

Currently most blogs are designed to fit a width of 960 pixels or less. That’s not always true; a particularly tech-savvy audience justifies a wider layout, because most readers will be on new, larger monitors. If you’re not given any guidance as to width, stick with 960px or ask for clarification.

Click the image below to see a basic guide to blog content. Note that this is just to show the main sections of a blog; the layout can be utterly and completely different. There might be more sidebars, or they might be on different sides, or you might choose to put some of the info in the footer. When you look at it, think in terms of “content I need to include,” not “this is a layout to emulate.”

Examples of good blog designs

Here are some blog designs from Alek Lisefski, a designer I work with regularly. In addition to the quality of work he provides, I also like working with Alek because he (visually) gives me all the info I need to code the design.

Notice how every design has a header, multiple sidebar widgets, and mouseover styles for the links? That kind of attention to detail makes it a breeze to get everything right the first time.

Go forth and design

And let me know what questions come up along the way! Leave comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

First, the dead-obvious suggestion: start with the blogs you’re already reading. Hopefully you’ve selected some high quality blogs that are written for people who are a lot like your ideal reader.

As you’re reading through posts, stay alert for points that catch your attention, give you an idea, remind you of something else, or even irritate you a little. Those things are excellent comment-fodder and, if you can communicate a response with clarity and intelligence, you’ll probably get the attention of the blogger and the readers.

Once you’ve visited all your “usual suspects,” though, where should you turn next?

Technorati

There are lots of options, but one of the best discovery tools is Technorati. Technorati’s claim to fame is their huge directory of blogs—over 110 million as of this writing. They also keep tabs on new posts, so they’re a great resource when you’re looking for fresh blog content on a specific topic.

The easiest way to find the most relevant posts is to use the search feature. Because of the absolutely massive amount of posts, you’ll want to be pretty specific with your search. Play around with it until you’re getting 3-10 relevant posts over the last couple of days. Then just read each of those posts and leave a thoughtful comment, and you’re done. (Well, almost. I like to track all of my comments with Commentful, but that’s a whole ‘nother post.)

Google BlogSearch

For our purposes, Google BlogSearch is a lot like Technorati. Often you’ll see the same posts in both places, so try them both for a few days and see which one you prefer; then just use the other briefly to pick up any that your primary method missed. Be sure to brush up on your search syntax to get the most out of Google.

CommentKahuna

I’m also growing to love a free little program called CommentKahuna (sorry, Mac folks, it’s Windows only). As far as I can tell, it’s being given away free to get people on a mailing list, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s a still a great deal for me.

So what does CommentKahuna do? It finds blogs and blog posts that match your search terms. Exactly what you need, right? And it has a couple of other features that make it even better.

One is that it can be set (under “Options”) to mark blogs that will link directly to you, without using the “nofollow” attribute. This matters because you’ll get more benefit from Google by commenting on these blogs. Similarly, you can view the resulting blogs ranked by Google Pagerank and focus your efforts on the blogs that are already Google’s favorites.

The process of commenting with CommentKahuna is very simple. First, you create a “Profile”; this is your personal information that you normally fill in along with your comment. CommentKahuna keeps track of this info and fills it in for you, which saves a step.

The program also lets you visit the blogs right through its interface, one right after another. This saves time, but more importantly for me, means I’m less likely to get distracted (my biggest time-waster of all!).

In many cases, the link that CommentKahuna gives you goes to a blog’s homepage. In this case, just take a quick browse through to see if any of the posts catch your eye. If not, move on.

I find it’s most effective for me to search for keywords that are related to my most recent post. My reasoning is twofold. First, this keeps the me from constantly getting the same suggested blogs. Second, this makes it more likely that a visitor following my link will be interested in my blog.

You’ll probably have to tweak CommentKahuna somewhat to get it “just right.” I’ve had better results limiting the search to WordPress blogs; otherwise I was getting a lot of quasi-blogs that didn’t have traditional comments. I’ve also found it important to quickly note the dates on posts; adding a comment a year after the fact doesn’t really promote the relationship unless the comment is extremely relevant.

What is blog comment marketing? It’s just a fancy way of saying “leave comments on other people’s blogs”—taking something you’re probably doing already, and just making it intentional.

Up till now, you may not have given any thought to the comments you leave on other blogs. Or maybe you have, but you aren’t great about getting around to it. Let me give you three good reasons why you should kick up your commenting.

1. Comments are the first step in forming a relationship with another blogger. Think about how you feel when you receive a comment. You read it, and if it’s thoughtful, you appreciate that someone took the time to write it. Good comments improve the quality of a blog, so you notice the folks who are helping your blog be better. As you leave comments over time, you’ll start to be recognized, and you might find yourself able to help the bloggers you interact with in the future… and vice versa.
2. You’ll get “pre-qualified” visitors. If you’re smart about where you comment, and you leave a good comment, you’ll attract not only the attention of the blogger but also the other readers. If you clearly know what you’re talking about and they’re interested in the topic, many of them will click through to your blog to find out more.
3. You’ll learn something in the process. If you read other blogs on your topic or blogs that are geared towards your ideal reader, you’ll pick up some useful knowledge in the process. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to answer a client’s question with something I recently read in a blog post.

But before you go crashing into comment marketing, leaving a wake of annoyed bloggers behind you, make sure you’re being a considerate commenter.

1. Only leave a comment if you can add something to the post. The point of blog comment marketing is to establish good will and useful links. If you’re not contributing something helpful, guess what: you’re not establishing good will, and the links you’re making aren’t useful. This isn’t about trying to beat the system; it’s about intentionally forming relationships. Besides, if you leave useless comments, you risk getting marked as a spammer; get marked too many times and you won’t be able to post on almost any blog (thanks to Akismet, a central database of spammers).
2. Put your blog URL in the “Website” or “URI” box and nowhere else. There’s a reason you’re asked for your website; most blogs will link your name to your site automatically when you leave a comment. To add your link anywhere else is just rude. The only exception is when you are linking to something that’s extremely relevant and specific (pretty much never your homepage), and will be considered genuinely helpful by other readers.
3. Don’t cram a bunch of marketing hype into your name. One of the current trends is to use the “Name” field as an extra place to stick your marketing message. Resist. Be consistent in what you put here (see this free PDF ebook for why it matters) but err on the side of not looking like a spammer.

My next post will talk about how to find good blog posts for your comment marketing. Until then, remember to be considerate!

1. Clarify the business goals for your blog
2. Commit to blogging goals for long-term success
3. Why create an “ideal reader”?
4. How to identify your ideal reader

If you’re convinced that you need to create an ideal reader, you’ll be eager to dig into the details. Get a notebook and pen, or use your computer and open up a text editor. Let’s go!

Start with generalities:

• Who is your target audience for your product or service? Does it make sense for your ideal reader to be the same?
• Thinking about your business goals for your blog, who is the target audience that is most likely to help you reach those goals? For instance, if one of your big goals is three leads a week, then your ideal reader is someone who is your ideal customer, but has increased motivation to take action now. If a big goal is to increase credibility and become known as an expert, your ideal reader might be a person who’s considered an expert among his or her peers and has a lot of connections and influence.
• What is your reader’s main motivation to visit your blog? In the first example above, the “ideal customer” is motivated to find a solution to a problem that’s currently causing discomfort or pain. On the other hand, the “connected expert” (in the second example) is more likely looking for interesting information that he can pass on to his circle to enhance their opinion of him and cement his good reputation.

Once you have some general ideas about your ideal reader, start to narrow it down and discover a single person that would read your blog. You might be able to use an existing customer or colleague as your model. Feel free to start writing a bit of a narrative rather than just answering each question individually.

• Is your reader male or female? How old?
• Is your reader tech-savvy?
• Where does your reader currently get the information he/she needs? For instance, talking with people, books, magazines, websites, etc.
• Why will this reader care about your blog?
• What’s significant about where your reader works, lives, shops, and or/plays?
• How knowledgeable is your reader about your topic?
• Is your reader reading for personal enrichment or professional development?
• Is your reader’s need for your knowledge urgent or curiosity-driven?

Now get really specific, beyond things that have a direct relationship with your blog. These details will help you think of your ideal reader as a specific, individual person. You might find it helpful to clip a photo from a magazine to represent your ideal reader. Having someone to look at can be surprisingly helpful.

• What is your reader’s name?
• Is your reader married? Are there kids? How many? What ages?
• Ethnicity? Hair and eye color? Height and weight?
• Is your reader’s work fulfilling?
• How is your reader’s free time spent?
• How does your reader dress during the week? On the weekends?

You get the idea. Just write and write until you feel like there’s an actual person. You may come up with a composite of people you’ve met, you might find a complete stranger, or you might discover that your ideal reader is someone you already know. It doesn’t matter, as long as you find someone to write to.

1. Clarify the business goals for your blog
2. Commit to blogging goals for long-term success
3. Why create an “ideal reader”?
4. How to identify your ideal reader

In blogging, like any other aspect of life, trying to please everyone usually results in pleasing no one. Not only will keeping your ideal reader in mind help you avoid straying too far from your goals, it also makes the actual process of writing easier.

Consider how much more quickly words flow when you’re writing an email to a friend versus creating a formal business presentation. When you have a specific recipient in mind, you have a much easier time communicating your ideas.

Picking just one “ideal reader” is easier said than done, though!

Ask any business who their target customer is and you’re likely to get a general category in response: small-to-medium-sized businesses; people who want to improve their health; growing companies who need accounting support but can’t afford an accounting employee. You’ll often encounter that truly optimistic soul who says, “Everyone needs my product!”

Along the same lines, if you ask most bloggers who their ideal reader is, you’ll hear more broad terms: people who want to lose weight; progressive liberals; frugal moms.

These categories are a start, but I prefer something I’ve found much more practical in the day-to-day work of blogging: think of one person—your ideal reader, not readers.

A local radio station does this. Their “ideal listener” is a made-up, but extremely detailed, woman named Jane. If you ask any of the station’s employees, they can tell you how old Jane is, how many kids she has, what her hobbies are, and just about anything else that matters to her.

This might seem a little overkill, but imagine how much easier it makes music or programming decisions. Instead of trying to decide if the nebulous “listeners” would like a change, the question is just about one person (a person who is intentionally representative of “the listeners”). It becomes much easier to have a core focus and escape distractions.

When you use this concept as a blogger, your benefits are similar. When you’re evaluating a potential blog post topic, you can ask yourself, “Why would Sam (or Jane, or Harriett) care about this?”

It’s way too easy to justify off-topic posts by reasoning that they’ll be useful to someone. If you have to feel confident that they will be valuable to Sam, the result will be a blog that is a much better resource for the actual people you want as readers.

Having a specific ideal reader in mind also will help you in the writing process. As you get to know your ideal reader, you will start to write directly to that person and anticipate his (or her) questions. You’ll be able to frame your suggestions and observations in a way that resonates, and everyone who reads your blog will benefit from the specificity.

You might think that focusing on one person would exclude others and cut your readership down. I’ve found, though, that people are pretty good at abstracting specific concepts to fit their situations; they also just ignore what doesn’t fit for them.

How many times have you seen a specific resource, like a book written “for dummies”, described as “not just for beginners”? Good information, presented well, will be useful for a broad range of readers, and they can usually tell pretty quickly.

Hopefully I’ve convinced you of the value of having a specific ideal reader. In my next post, I’ll tell you how to create one.