Marketing Q&A: Blogging, Snapchat and Twitter Fears

WOW!  What a fantastic summit.  Best one yet?  I think so.  Anyone still catching up from all their aha moments?  Or just plain catching up?  Me too.

This year’s event sparked tons of chatter around marketing plans.  Here are a few of the questions I’ve received since the conference.

Q:  Alesya!  I’m worried about our blog.  The summit is making me feel like I have to redo the whole thing and blog everyday.  What do you think?  Talk me off the ledge. 

A.  I get this question about once a month.  But after the summit and seeing so many fantastic bloggers the topic reaches a frantic pitch.  If you want to be a blogger – and that’s your #1 gig, you need to blog everyday weekday.  And I feel super strongly about this.

If your blog supports your business – as in you sell a different product or service – it’s a totally different scenario.  My first question to talk you off the ledge is “How happy are you with your business?”  If the answer is “VERY!” then you don’t need change your blogging strategy.  You can tweak it based on what you learned at the summit, but there is no need for a total overhaul.

If you would answer my question with something like “Well, I would be happier if…” then it’s time to dive deeper into your blog.   In general, you need to blog about things your clients or potential clients want to read about.  You need to attract the people for whom you are looking.

For instance, if you complained, “I have a very high end floral shop.  We generally only do weddings with floral budgets of $20,000 and above.  Yet I’m constantly getting people who want to spend $500 on flowers.  That’s not the kind of work I want to do.”

After listening to your problem I would respond, “You need to figure out what the total budget is for your kind of wedding.  Then you need to find out what other high end offerings would be included – the planner, entertainment, venue, gown, etc.  Once you have that list you need to start featuring those kind of vendors and products on your blog.  Of course, be sure to include posts with your own work – and only the work you want to do again, but you need to tell the whole story while letting potential clients know you understand them.”

This can be a complex issue, but the good news is you can test your market and shift accordingly.  If you have a specific marketing blogging question feel free to reach out to me  – alesya (at) alesyabags.com – anytime.

Q.  I didn’t think my clients used Snapchat.  Now I’m starting to wonder if they do.  Are you using Snapchat?

A.  After the summit I finally feel like I should at least give Snapchat a try.  Before then I was firmly in the “Snapchat is used by teenagers to send naked pictures” camp.  Now I’m starting to see some real business applications.  Many of the attendees I talked to were feeling the same way.

This is not my area of expertise, but I’m now giving the platform a six month trial.  Once I have any firm findings, I will report back.  All that being said, if your target audience is 13-25 year-olds, you need to be on Snapchat.  Pronto.

Q.  I just don’t get Twitter.  My Insta posts get shared up there, but other than that I find it useless.  Why should I be using it?

A.  Twitter is the place where you can form relationships with people you don’t know.  As opposed to Facebook which is for deepening relationships with people you do know.  You’ve got to be on it – if only so people can find you!  In this past week I’ve chatted with best-selling author Gretchen Rubin:

And FUBU founder and Shark Tank Shark Daymond John:

Not to mention clients, friends, business leaders in town…you see what I’m saying.  It’s how busy people connect – 140 characters at a time.

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As always, I appreciate your questions.  Click here to read previous questions and my marketing answers.  Now I’m off to tackle that aha list.  I hope you are too.