Blogging Can Be a Challenge!

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Many of you know I participated in the Blogging A to Z Challenge. The rules were simple: A letter a day (okay, a word) for the month of April, with Sundays off.


It sounded easy too. But it wasn’t. Not only was it forcing me to focus on a particular letter and choose a word, I had to somehow tie it into marketing. So I started with a piece of fruit, evolved into large animals, and ended it all with an ice resurfacing machine. 


And what happened? I stretched my mind and went waaaay out of the box. 


The good folks running the challenge recommended keeping posts short. I was determined to conquer that suggestion, since I found that my blogs had started going beyond 600 words. Sometimes I wrote over 700 and went back and chopped. This took time out of my busy day! My overall rule was to keep it around 500 and they were saying to make it closer to 300.


Then I remembered some of my own advice from a blog about blogs from last year. Be clear, crisp, and concise. Was I wondering away from my own good medicine? 


So I worked harder at “whittling”. How did I do that? I started writing incomplete sentences, dropping “I” from the start of a sentence for example. Word didn’t like that much when I ran spelling and grammar reviews. So be it. It’s NOT wrong to write an incomplete sentence. Think about it; do we speak in complete sentences in every day verbalization? Heck no. 


Not going to say to you: “I am going to the store now and I'll see you later today.” I WILL say “goin’ to the store; see ya in a bit.” And you know, the experts DO say to write like you speak; like you’re having a conversation.


So be it. I’m taking away words! Not in a "1984" sense though!


Several of my posts in April came in at just over 400 words; a few came under to my utter delight.


And this one will too.


So in the future, expect shorter blogs from me. If they seem too long let me know. I WILL take into account the subject matter of course; there will be times where it will just have to be longer. All rules have exceptions, although the Main Ingredient sang a different tune on that subject matter in 1972:

Drop by and say hello! Twitter, Facebook, Google+

Buoyancy, Social Media, and You.

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Bought a really silly item at a garage sale 20 years ago. A buoy. Oh, not just any buoy; this one once served a purpose, judging from the words “Slow Wake 5MPH” on it. It stood over five feet tall and looked cool in my game room.

Time went by and it was time to part ways. I emerged $20 ahead after recouping my original $5 investment and the buoy entered a new career as a pool float.

Do you need a buoy just to stay afloat in the world of social media? Are you flailing your arms in an effort to keep your head above water? And if you are merely floating, isn’t it time to do the butterfly stroke and move forward?

Let’s assume you have a plan in place (if you don’t, read about apples first). And perhaps the plan is a good one. You've laid down the steps and while you’re floating most of the time, you’re not swimming but sinking a little once in a while. It’s time to review that plan. And you may have to tweak it more often than you’d like. A couple of scenarios:

You’re on Facebook and/or Google+ and not getting a lot of engagement. You truly believe your posts are great; perhaps they are original blog posts or links to articles. Are you merely slapping those posts on your page, or are you saying something constructive about them?

At the very least, you need to say something about that post.

Summarizing what your fans will find when they click on the link will encourage them to read it and say something about it.

Asking a question to the fans works well too. They DO want to talk to you; why else are they even there? Well okay, the lurkers aren’t going to say anything, but that’s a whole other blog post.

Or how about this? Give your fans a jolt with something that’s slightly out of scope but not so far out that they’ll be questioning your sanity. If your product is pool supplies, why not post a song related to that? Twistin’ by the Pool? Splish Splash? Trying this may bring some light heartedness to your page…do make sure you stay in tune with your brand. The advantage? It could bring fans back more often and while they’re visiting, they’ll check out your other posts too.

Ready to go beyond just floating?

A tune related to buoyancy for you. Click here.

This blog is a part of a series for the A to Z Challenge. For “A”, click here. Stay tuned for “C”.

Note: Buoy pictured here is not the one we owned. This one was found at http://www.wholesalemarine.com