When you think of a blog, what do you think of?

A lot of students new to blogging have a hard time with how blogging is useful in marketing.  I have found that this is mainly because when students think of what a blog is, they think of personal blogs filled with diary-style musings about their personal life or a Tumblr-esque cascade of animated GIFs.

I'd like to make sure you have some good examples of professionals who use blogs to promote their personal brand by creating interesting original content.  

Here are a few blogs about marketing that you should take a look at and learn from.

Logic + Emotion
David Armano, VP at Edelman in NYC, is always posting insightful ideas 

Erika Napoletano
Erika is a copywriter who irreverently writes about marketing, advertising, branding, and business from a unique perspective.

Chris Brogan
Chris is a publisher and business consultant. He helps business owners and marketers get up to speed on what he calls the "personal business revolution".

I'd encourage you to use tools like Google Blog Search to find influential blogs in the topic area(s) surrounding your personal brand.  Set up a blog reading tool like Feedly to check in on them as you would check on news, sports, or Facebook happenings.

Welcome to my new Digital Advertising students!

Welcome to the class blog.  This site serves as a digital repository of resources and content we will be talking about and using in class.  It's also a great way for me to showcase some of the things that you'll be doing with your blog during the course of this semester.

Once you all create your own blogs, they will be listed on the right nav bar under the "Class Blogs" link. 

Feel free to read ahead and explore - see you in class.

Social Media Roundup (Part 2 - Blogs) - Spring 2013

In my last post, I gave you a roundup of our class social media stats and highlighted some standout achievements on Twitter, Klout, and LinkedIn.  Now I'm going to showcase another part of your project: Your blogs.

Most Visited Blogs

These blogs garnered the most pageviews during the course of the semester - they did a great job attracting and engaging their visitors.

1. Kayleigh Green - Engaging Guerrillas - 1,562 pageviews
2. Kenny Ooi - Malaysian Food for the Soul - 1,188 pageviews
3. Rebecca Nims - Beyond the Radio - 1,097 pageviews
4. Jess Martin - People on Music - 995 pageviews
5. Aaron Willis - Panther MMA Marketing - 988 pageviews
    

Matthew's Personal Favorite Blogs

I really enjoyed reading all of your blogs and presentations. Here is my subjective list of a few that I particularly enjoyed:

1. Kayleigh Green - Engaging Guerrillas
   This blog was hands-down awesome.  It was focused, well-written, thoughtful - and most of all, Kayleigh's passion for the topic really comes through.  It doesn't feel like an assignment for class - it reads like it was written by a professional who loves what they do.
   
   
   
    
2. Gabe Halverson - A Week in Music News
   I'll admit it - anyone who blogs about My Bloody Valentine and Nick Cave is going to get my attention.  But Gabe really delivered the goods - he delved into his topic and wrote in-depth informative posts. He has even kept up the blogging - and has written three more posts since the assignment ended!
   
   
    
3. MacKenzie Johnson - Design is Always Greener on the Inside
   MacKenzie collected a lot of interesting examples of green design - lots of great visuals and an in-depth look at the redesign of Navy Pier in Chicago.
   
   
    
4. Rebecca Nims - Beyond the Radio
   The thing that impressed me most about this blog was Rebecca's band interviews - both written up as blog posts and published as YouTube videos. She thereby created original content that is only available on her blog. That's an accomplishment. It's a reminder that offline engagement is just as important as digital engagement!
   
   
    
5. Kenny Ooi - Malaysian Food for the Soul
   This blog made me very hungry. It also made me ask the question: When will Cedar Falls have a Malaysian restaurant?
   
   
    
6. Scotti Schon - Green Child
   Scotti made good use of list articles to create an informative set of resources on topics related to the green movement. Whether you're looking for green Tweeps to follow on Twitter, Environmental Causes to support, or DIY projects to try - this blog has it covered. A good example of a wider focus that can still be coherent.
   
   
7. Justus Thompson - Advertisements
   Justus showed a real interest in understanding how advertising works from a consumer perspective through real campaigns.
   
   
8. Aaron Willis - Panther MMA Marketing 
   I am not a huge sports fan - but got a kick out of Aaron's look at how MMA fighters market themselves through such techniques as trash talking and walkouts. That's some creative thinking on what are excellent examples of experiential marketing.
   
   
9. Nick Throckmorton - Craft Beer CF
   Craft beers are becoming more popular - and Nick does a good job tasting and reviewing a number of them.  Whether you're looking for a beer that "smells like a campfire" or tastes like "Grandpa's Hunting Cabin at Christmas" - Nick has you covered.
   
   
10. Zach Rhodes - Computers vs. Evil
    A fun way to frame the discussion of technology.  Top 5 Computer Protagonists from Fiction is a great list article (though you forgot Astroboy!), and Gaming vs Evil gets props for experimenting with video blogging.
    
    
11. Taylor Sloter - The Design Playlists
    Another great visual blog with inspiring visual interior designs and architecture.  This blog had a lot of comments which showed that interesting content is a great conversation starter.
    
    

There were many more I enjoyed as well - but I'm running out of time and space here! 

Did you have a favorite blog this semester that I didn't mention?  Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks again for a great semester - you are welcome to tune into #advertisingspoiled any time! Or use your new hashtag: #advertisingspoiledalums

 

Social Media Project Roundup (Part 1) - Spring 2013

Every semester, my Digital Advertising students work very hard on a massive project: To develop a professional brand using social media. I just finished looking through all of the projects and wanted to take a moment to praise their work and note a few special honors.

The Big Picture

From January 20 - April 15, my 48 #advertisingspoiled students accomplished the following:

• Posted a total of 8,477 tweets on Twitter
• Gained a total of 2,758 followers on Twitter
• Earned an average score of 47 on Klout
• Added 3,857 connections on LinkedIn
• Earned 484 endorsements on LinkedIn
• Published 494 blog posts on Blogger
• Earned 23,805 pageviews from visitors to their blogs

That's a lot of work!  I congratulate you on your diligence.
 

TWITTER

Top 5 Most Voracious Tweeters

Tweeting is one of those things that seems very easy at first glance - until you do it every day and start running out of ideas of what to talk about.  Here are the top five #advertisingspoiled Tweeps by Tweet volume:

1. @kmonopoly - 616 Tweets
2. @abby_meyers - 503 Tweets
3. @GreenChild1 - 409 Tweets
4. @kayleighgree - 389 Tweets
5. @PaigeAshleigh99 - 352 Tweets
    

Top 5 Most Added Followers

If you want to wield influence on Twitter, you need followers.  Here are the students who added the most followers during the semester.

1. @CraftBrewCF - added 260 followers
2. @BeyondTheRadio - added 180 followers
3. @GreenChild1 - added 150 followers
4. @HoldTheWheat - added 134 followers
5. @EarthlyPrint - added 118 followers
    

KLOUT

Who has the most Klout?

Klout is not a perfect measure of social media influence (sometimes it seems to have a mind of its own), but for what it's worth, here are our five most influential class members according to Klout:
 

LINKEDIN

Most Connected on LinkedIn
When job hunting, who you know is often as important as who you are.  Here are the top five most connected class members on LinkedIn:

1. Kayleigh Green - 309 Connections
2. Antoine Costello - 245 Connections
3. McKayla Hackfort - 187 Connections
4. Ian Huntley - 183 Connections
5. Rachael Faust - 172 Connections
    

Best Linkedin Profiles

These four did a fantastic job with their LinkedIn profiles - They stuck out as particularly exceptional. 

• Brooke Young
• Kayleigh Green
• Scotti Schon
• Taylor Sloter
   

Did you have any favorite Tweeps or Linkedin connections that deserve special mention?  Tell me about why they're awesome in the comments!

Up next: A post on the best blogs of 2013.  Stay tuned.

Add a Spotify Playlist to your Blog

I've noticed a lot of students are writing about music this semester. One of the challenges with music writing in the past has been trying to give the reader an idea of what the music sounds like without actually playing the music.

Today, however, you have other options - some of you have been embedding YouTube videos in your blog posts. That works - but can also be distracting.

Here is one way to just share songs and playlists with your blog readers using Spotify.

You can share songs on Spotify (like this awesome Thelonius Monk tune):




Or you can share entire Spotify playlists (Like this playlist of highly recommended jazz tunage):



How do you do it? Follow these steps:

1. Download and Install Spotify. Create an account (the basic account is free - supported by ads which may interrupt your music listening).
2. Search for music that you like and create a playlist that you want to share.
3. Right click [PC] or control click [Mac] on the name of your playlist and select "Publish" if it is not already checked.
4. Right click [PC] or control click [Mac] on the name of your playlist and select "Copy Embed Code".
5. Go to Blogger and create a new post. Go into "HTML" mode and paste the embed code.
6. Preview your blog post. Look OK? Great - Click "Publish"!

CAVEAT: Your reader must have Spotify installed to listen to your playlist.

Easy, huh?  This works for almost any website or blog platform, not just Blogger.  So what are you waiting for? Go try it on your own blog! And for those about to rock, I salute you! 

Everyday Tamil Cinema surprises you by the fascinating new thoughts of young filmmakers. Here is one that's bound to create history. 'Karma' a film directed by Arvind Ramalingam has created history by making Kavi Perarasu Vairamuthu write new 'Kural' and have recorded it in his voice as well. When asked about it Kavi Perarasu Vairamuthu said 'Karma film Director Arvind Ramalingam and Music Director L.V.Ganesan met me and said that they are planning to do the title credits differently, and for that if they had asked a song wouldn't be surprised but they said they needed 'Kural' like Thirukkral. I liked the idea. There are 133 chapters in Thirukkural and there is a chapter called 'Oozhvinai'. I have written 10 kurals slightly related and slightly not related to 'Oozhvinai'. They have recorded these 10 kurals in my voice. I thank Arvind Ramalingam and L.VGanesan for the opportunity.

Moreover he said 'After I wrote and recorded it, now I think that how Thiruvalluvar would have written Thirukkural for this generation. Thirukkural was written more than 2000 years ago. Times and lives have changed a lot since then. Thiruvaluvar is not here, no one is there in his heights. So I am planning to write 133 Chapters of Thirukkural for the new generation as how Thiruvalluvar would have written it. If in future this happens I am proud to say that the credits for the same would go to Karma film Director Arvind Ramalingam and Music Director L.V.Ganesan.'

'Karma' is a Tamil film produced by Creative Criminal Productions and Directed by Arvind Ramalingam.

© Creative Criminal Productions

SEOMoz - SEO Software Company with Fantastic Inbound Marketing

SEOmoz is an SEO software company that creates immensely popular tools for SEO marketers looking to improve their website's rankings on search engines like Google or Bing. 

Their website contains a wealth of excellent free content on SEO in theory and practice -  and many in the industry use this content even if they are not SEOmoz customers. These resources establish SEOmoz as a "thought leader" in the SEO field and they earn much positive awareness and industry respect as a result.

A good place to start is their free SEO guide for beginners: 

The Beginners Guide to SEO

SEOmoz is a great example of how a strong inbound marketing program can accomplish many things (increase awareness, create positive brand perception, increase sales, etc) if done correctly.

They're also a good follow on Twitter for the latest on SEO and Search marketing (at @SEOmoz).

Setting up Google Analytics to track your Blogger blog

Today I saw a few Tweets by some #advertisingspoiled students who were having trouble with their social media setup.

Trying to finish up my project setup, fun but confusing #advertisingspoiled
— Aaron Willis (@MMA_Marketer) January 29, 2013

#advertisingspoiled Help! Trying to set up google analytics and I have no clue what I am doing.
— Caitlin Hanken (@CaitlinHanken) January 29, 2013

To make life a little easier for you, I just bought an awesome screen recording tool called iShowU, which will allow me to give you a quick tutorial on how to create a Google Analytics account and set it up to start tracking your Blogger blog. 

Hope this helps - I recommend watching in fullscreen mode so you can read the text. Good luck and enjoy!

 

Successful Personal Brands

Your personal brand creates a unique public identity for yourself that communicates who you are, what you're interested in, and why you're passionate about it.  Successful personal brands build a following because they are very clear and articulate about these three points.

Here are a few examples of individuals who have successfully created personal brands:

@briansolis

Brian Solis 

Principal at Altimeter Group and author of The End of Business As Usual. 

@chrisbrogan

Chris Brogan - CEO of a business design company, author, and speaker.

@armano

David Armano

Managing Director of Edelman Chicago and internationally recognized industry thought leader.  

@redheadwriting

Erika Napoletano 

Redhead copywriter who curses like a sailor and writes about writing, business, marketing, and branding. Author of The Power of Unpopular.

@garyvee

Gary Vaynerchuk
Social media expert, speaker, and author of the best selling books Crush it and The Thank You Economy. 

@lauraries 

Laura Ries 

Focusing consultant and author of many books on branding such as The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and more recently, Visual Hammer. 

@sarahaustin

Sarah Austin
Internet personality, tech journalist, Chief Geek for Pop17, and prankster.

There are many more out there - look around and find some that influence you - then share them in the comments to this post.

3 Good Articles About Personal Branding

The biggest decision you will have to make this semester will be made in the next 1-2 weeks: defining what your personal brand is about.  Many students struggle with this.  Some think of too many things they want to write about.  Others can't think of anything - though often they actually have thought of something but need some help defining it and some validation that it okay to want to write about.

Here are a few resources to look at as you begin to think about your personal brand:

Don't forget about your Emotional Appeal
There are many introductory articles about personal branding.  Some are awful.  This one isn't.  I really like how the first step of defining your brand has to do with what the author calls your "emotional appeal."  We often forget that we have a personality that can come through in our writing.  The characteristics that make up that personality are powerful branding tools - because they are so personal and elicit emotional responses.

Make your Brand Statement a mantra
I love this helpful post by former Apple Evangelist Guy Kawasaki on creating a concise three or four word mantra rather than a mission statement.  Mantras are memorable - and that makes them powerful.  

An alternate view
This article by Ryan Rancatore appears to recommend not having a personal brand statement - but read a little deeper.  What he's really saying is that if you have one, you have to really live it. 

Your personal brand does not have to encompass everything you are - just what you want to focus on right now.  Good luck!

Google Plus Integrates with Blogger

Google has been integrating a lot of its web services (like its photo sharing tool Picasa) into its social network, Google Plus.  Recently it added some Google Plus integration with Blogger.

The catch is that to get it, you have to connect your Blogger blog with your Google Plus profile.  Once you do that, here's what you can do to better integrate Blogger and Google Plus:

1. You can "tag" Google Plus friends in blog posts. 
Easily tag your Google Plus friends in a Blogger post by typing a "+" symbol and then typing their name out.  For example, to tag my UNI colleague +Michael Prophet in this post, I just typed the "+" symbol and start typing his first name:

I then selected his name at the top and a link was created to his Google Plus profile.  Notice as I was typed the word "Michael" it also showed me other Michaels in my circles, as well as Michaels on Google Plus that are not in my circles (so I can link to profiles of those not in my Google Plus circles).

2. Use the Google Plus Followers Gadget

The old school "Google Friend Connect" has been retired by Google (though it still works for the time being).  A better tool for listing followers of your blog is now the Google Plus Followers Gadget.  You'll notice this gadget installed on the right hand side of this page.

3. Notify Google Plus friends when you publish a new blog post

When you publish new blog posts, you now have the option of notifying your Google Plus friends - Blogger automatically adds any Google Plus friends you may have mentioned in your post.

Notice that it also put the name of my blog post and "search description" text in the status update.

4. Blog visitors can "+1" content

This is not a new feature, but there is also a gadget available that allows readers to "+1" a blog or blog post.  This is akin to "liking" a page on Facebook.  You'll see a +1 button also on the right hand side nav bar on this page.

For this class, I've considered using a tool such as WordPress for blogs, but with the great integration with Google Analytics and AdWords, I've stuck with Blogger for the time being.  And though I don't use Google Plus a whole lot, perhaps this will be a reason to start.

Move over PSY Gangnam Style! Dhool Tucker is here!

Indian dancing legend Prabhu Deva creates signature dance moves based on the batting styles of cricket stars Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra sehwag and MS Dhoni. Check it out!