What I learned while sharing my blogging lessons

by Carl Natale on January 30, 2011

[slideshare id=6737510&doc=smbme-110128135700-phpapp01]

I thoroughly enjoyed explaining blogging strategy at Friday’s Social Media Breakfast. Anytime I can speak about blogging for business, I have a great time. More importantly, the audience got a lot of great information to help them.

I did learn a few things about blogging and presenting. Here are a few of my takeaways:

Why you need to use your own equipment when presenting

I made a beautiful presentation in Keynote on my Mac. No one there could confirm that because my slides were displayed in PowerPoint on a PC. I made a PPT version in case they needed it.

My bad. I should have connected my computer to the projector. Then I would have been sure everything would display correctly.

Most of the time, your tools are the best option for getting the job done. Stick with what delivers consistently for you.

How to truly back up your presentations

Like I said. I created a PowerPoint version of a Keynote presentation. I never imagined things wouldn’t display as intended. I should have checked it to make sure it was good.

Public speaking means never saying you’re sorry

There I was. Standing in front of readable, but definitely not-right slides. Crap.

I immediately launched into my speech. No apologies. I didn’t spend a second trying to express an excuse or explanation or regret.

It’s not that I was without remorse. But I had a lot to say in a short amount of time. An apology would have just taken up time. I had more valuable things to say.

Also, the audience didn’t care. They came for blogging advice not for my regrets. They forgave my mistake as soon as I started talking.

Apologizing at that point would have been more about my feelings. Like I said in my presentation, “It’s all about the audience.” I never forgot that I was there to inform them.

Why there are three presenters

I had a moment of panic as I drove to Portland. I was worried about all the tips I should have included. But when I saw what Rich and Chantal had to say, I was relieved. They were saying the things I could have said.

I’m confident everyone in the audience got a pretty broad view of business blogging.

Why you should blog more frequently

I have a reasonable justification for not constantly updating your blog. Which doesn’t mean everyone should neglect their blogs. Chantal has a very good reason for blogging as much as possible. It drives sales.

She keeps her blog as fresh as possible. And each entry links back to her business.

Point is, she’s using a model that works very well for her. You just may have the same experience.

Why keywords matter

Rich has an interesting story about how he used keywords to get a ton of pageviews one day. He was inspired to write a post about chopsticks entitled “Chopsticks Instructions: How to Use Chopsticks.”

Apparently he became popular among the kind of people who order Chinese takeout without making sure they had clean forks. Armed with nothing but chopsticks and a Google search, they found Rich’s post.

Sorry for the tongue-in-cheek treatment of his example. It is a powerful demonstration of how your title can attract traffic.

Why you shouldn’t blog about chopsticks

When I told the audience that they shouldn’t waste time on posts that weren’t germane to their profession, I wasn’t talking to Rich.

He’s a writer. Blogging is easy for him. It’s very little effort for him to blog about chopsticks or QR codes. This entry costs him nothing.

But how much does writing a blog post cost you? I’m betting it’s an investment of time and effort. If that is so, you can’t afford to write a post that attracts a lot of readers who will not become your customers.

Did I mention that none of the people who read Rich’s chopstick post bought websites from him?

When pen meets paper

The coolest thing I saw Friday morning was all the people who were furiously taking notes as I spoke. It was a sign that they found my presentation valuable.

How Twitter gives you valuable feedback

It’s really interesting to read the Twitter stream from Social Media Breakfast. Scroll down past all the nice things said about us. People are repeating points from each of us. It’s interesting to see what someone thinks is worth tweeting.

It’s good feedback on what’s valuable to your audience. Almost as good as sneaking a peek at the notebooks that the non-tweeting people find valuable.

What is your takeaway?

Let me know in the comments what you thought was valuable or what you wish you learned Friday.

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