M & A Rainmaker

When someone said that to me the other day I thought well, everyone can’t can they !! As I responded – I can do it because I am a
” published writer ” !!  I have not written a book and had it published but I have written a number of articles, stories and blogs – some of which have been published.

I feel like I have a book or two in me but there’s a bit of distance between now and something I can open and thumb through.

I definately don’t consider myself to be a professional writer. However, I have developed a rather unusual ability to write Search Engine Optimised or Content Optimised blogs and articles.

This blog has not been written to rank ( in Google ) for anything. I consider this to be a relaxing piece of writing because I do not have any key words or phrases in my head that I am trying to work into my titles and content.

No, this is completely unoptimised content. I am just writing something.

I was listening to Twylah co-founder Eric Kim recently and he was talking about how Twitter is great for people who can’t string a blog together. All they have to do is to is to think up something that takes up to 140 characters. Anyone can do that right ??

Well, I think that most people could think of something to say but the question is would it be worth reading ?? Leaving aside celebrities there are obviously quite a few people who can write something interesting in 140 characters – judging by the number of followers that they have.

On the other hand when you look at some of the things that people say you wonder why they are doing it and who is reading it. I have to say that I have got a little bored with people that just throw out ” famous quote ” after ” famous quote “. Although it is surprising how many I quite like – and like enough to ReTweet. I do wonder just how many interesting ” quotes ” there are and how many people will  continue to be interested in reading them.

I don’t have much time for ” Life Coach ” type quotes either but again some of them you read and are glad to be reminded of.

I actually write blogs for some people. Most of the time I do this myself but I always ask them to think of topics and if possible, angles themselves. I then create blogs around their ideas that are typically laced with words and phrases that they want to rank for.

You have basically got to have a blog these days. I could explain why but trust me you need one. In simple terms you need to be adding fresh, relevant content to your web/blogsite and domain.

Your blog is part of what I call your ” Internet Marketing Ecosystem “. ( Search on that term here or in Google for more information ).

I have 2 or 3 things at the core of my ” Internet Marketing Ecosystem ” – a web/blogsite and a Twylah page.

Here is my Twylah page – http://www.twylah.com/cwindley .

A Twylah page takes your 140 character Tweets ( usually with links to pictures and videos ) and automatically ( with no effort from yourself ) puts them into a web/blogsite.

So this https://twitter.com/#!/cwindley is reorientated as this http://www.twylah.com/cwindley.

Not only are my Tweets re-presented but they are also sorted into categories. In my case:

Marketing

Social Media

Business

Twitter

and

Startups

are the uppermost categories. ( I can decide which categories I want to appear first ).

The Twylah pages are searchable ( they are like normal web/blog pages ) and thousands of peoples Tweets are pouring into the Twylah website producing rich ( text, pictures and videos ) content for Google to find.

What I am saying is that your Twylah pages are going to rank high in Google for the categories that represent you.

Arguably your Twylah page is a more accurate reflection of your Internet presence than, say, Klout, Kred or PeerIndex.

The main point is this – you don’t have to be able to write blogs – just get a Twylah page and it will write them ( automatically SEO’d ) for you !!

You may be thinking that you are talking to that famous pop star that you adore or reading his or her pearls of wisdom but the likelihood is that you are talking to or hearing from a trusted stand-in.

As the use and importance of social media communication grows so will the number of people and businesses that have to make a decision as to whether they spend the time personally communicating or whether they outsource this responsibility to someone that they can trust. ( That’s twice I have said the ” trust ” word in so many sentences ! ).

As this blog post says

http://socialmediatoday.com/alexisbonari/283796/pros-and-cons-using-alias-your-online-persona

people have been using pseudonyms for hundreds of years. Personally I have no problem with people ghosting, aliasing or using pseudonyms and it is naive to think that this does not happen.

People and businesses are rapidly arriving at this decision point for many reasons:

– Social media membership and participation is now regarded as a necessary way of communicating for individuals and businesses wishing to promote themselves and interact with their customers, potential customers ( prospects ) and supporters.

– It is becoming more and more important for individuals and businesses to continuously generate content ( new pages, articles and posts ) for their websites, blogs and social media pages.   Not only is this a task that is time consuming it also requires writing and Search Engine Optimisation ( S,E.O. ) skills. The content has to be relevant to be effective.

– Many individuals and businesses do NOT have the skills or the time to communicate effectively using websites, blogs and social media.

When you make the decision to outsource ( i.e. to employ a ghost writer or alias ) it is very hard to find the right person to represent you or your business.

It is also very hard to be the person that is doing the ghosting or aliasing.

It is especially difficult because to do the job effectively you have to be trusted completely or it will not work.

You have to understand enough about that person or business to represent them effectively and to act and respond, pretty well, as they would.

Website pages are typically written by the internal or external website specialists and usually they are approved by the person or business representatives before posting.

Blog posts may also be treated the same way although excessive approval process’s may affect the spontaneity of these blog posts. Also blog posts may get comments which need to be responded to in a reasonable timeframe and in an appropriate manner.

Social Media posts are potentially much more interactive than website updates or blog posts. I say potentially because a lot of social media posts are not commented on or require a response.  However when you do get a comment or response then they MUST be responded to in a timely and appropriate manner.

With responses to blog comments and social media comments and questions the way that you respond is crucial. These are LEADS for the person or business that is being represented. They may be opportunities to build the follower base or they may be comments about the person or business or they could be actual expressions of interest in the person or businesses products or services.

Every comment needs to be nurtured as far as it can be. By this I mean that opportunities can only be taken so far or there is a danger that you turn a potential supporter or customer into a person that is unhappy with the person or company being represented.

The importance and value of the people who alias or ghost for other people or companies should now be clearer.

It is also a hugely difficult task because many people and business owners do not understand what they have to do and what information they need to provide to allow the ghost or alias to be successful. For example people and businesses ideally need to share business strategy and objectives and also keep their representatives up to date with events, case studies, supplier initiatives and things that interest them.

It would perhaps take me too long to explain the whole story of how this book came about but it is a beautiful little book with some wise words in it written in a fun way. Perhaps one day I will tell the whole story !!

It’s author, Jet Rotmans, is an artist who, to me, has become an Internet artist. She may be one of the first artist’s to have embraced social networking and blogging and to have weaved art into the ether.

You can get a copy of the book here

http://www.floppyfaithfactory.com/

and you can find out more about Jet by Googling her and connecting with her.

I just thought that I would have a quick look to see how The Glan was doing for people that searched for Christmas and New Year in Holywell.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=christmas+in+holywell&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

I am pleased to say that thanks to NikkiP and her team we have good representation in this and related searches with the Glan blog featuring well

Christmas meal in Holywell – Eat Christmas dinner at The Glan!

and also an old Ecademy blog that I did making a reappearance in 2009/10 clothing

http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=list&lid=73858

Nice to see !!