Have you ever been curious about the status of a company or associate you haven’t connected with in a while? If you’re like me, you go to their website for their latest information. Maybe you go to a LinkedIn profile for an individual person.

Have you ever visited a website looking for new, only to find old? You go to their blog and the most recent post is from June, 2013. Then you see a tab labeled “Latest News” so you click it and find a press release from the same month and year talking about the same thing. That’s communicating to you that the company has little regard for its online audience. It could also be telling you that the company may be in trouble if it can’t keep up with basic web updates. Incongruity of messages like “Blog” or “Latest News” with content dated two years ago just doesn’t jive!

As I facilitated a networking event yesterday, a salient point became very clear. The group was sharing success stories in what works for them in sales and marketing. An unmistakable pattern emerged from a very diverse group of professional men and women. Most of them were finding success through content marketing, particularly with organic search traffic resulting from dynamic web content, blogging and email marketing. Some talked about relationships and word of mouth but there was a noticeable emphasis on fresh, relevant web content.

We’re in the content creation business and I don’t want you to think I’m trolling for leads. My point in this article is that fewer and fewer businesses can get away with ignoring their websites because almost all potential customers now search for ALL of their needs on the Internet.

“Set it and forget it” is no option with websites. A beautiful website is a total waste of time and money if you leave it static for a long time. It will fade away to obscurity in the search engines, and tell returning visitors that you haven’t done squat in the market lately.

We’ll be writing a lot about website maintenance in coming weeks because now, your website may as well be your business phone number. If it’s “unlisted,” what good is it?If the content is old and obsolete, visitors will ask, “Is there anybody home?”

The post Are you slowly killing your website? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

By Chuck Sink

The default position of almost every corporate communication decision is the watered down, safe, politically correct version of the story. Unfortunately, that’s the bogus version.

The risk of offending one vocal audience member has executives cowering in fear of the social and political mobs. Honesty and truth are hiding in the minds of communicators as they try to offend nobody and please everyone.

Did you know that you are often right and those who disagree with you are often wrong?  Seriously, did you know that your deeply held, principled values are very likely better for our society than the values of those vehemently opposing you? Yes it’s true and you need to speak truth to power as well as to ignoramuses.

If you know something to be true and have the evidence behind you, be forthright and honest in your communications, regardless of whom may be offended. I’m fairly certain I will lose 2, 3 maybe 5 subscribers over this newsletter content. That’s okay with me because I have a very loyal core of readers in this audience. You are the people who make good things happen in my world. Thank you! <3

Trust in business is vital to our economic freedom and vitality. The only people we can really trust are those who are willing to tell us exactly what they believe to be true. Keep in mind that discretion and judgement are important in guiding what needs to be said, to whom and when.

Keep all communications relevant, in proper context and based in love. That way, even your adversaries will hear the ring of truth in what you have to say.

The post Crack a Few Shells to Get Food for Thought appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

A FREE NETWORKING EVENT to celebrate our TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Thursday, May 30, 2013 – 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM

Eastpoint Executive Center – 264 South River Road Bedford, NH 03110

Create Content  to Drive New Business!

Presented by Chuck Sink Link and Eastpoint Executive Center

Please RSVP  by leaving a comment right here on this post.

You may also RSVP by contacting Chuck:  chuck@chucksink.com  |  (603) 345-7223

Come learn something valuable and make connections.  See you May 30th!

Create content that is engaging!

The post Learn and Network at the Chuck Sink Link Anniversary Event appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

By Chuck Sink

In today’s marketing world you need to be a good Content Curator (Curator, huh?)  Curating the content is also known as getting the content so if I use the word “get” instead of “curate,” forgive me. The last real curators I knew worked exclusively for museums.

Give Me an Easy Tool!

A client of mine recently asked her SEO vendor what they use to generate fresh content for the dynamic news feed on their website. What “Curator Plugin” did they use? The answer came back starting this way: “There’s no easy answer on this one…” The vendor went on to explain how they manually get (curate) articles for their news feed. “We all do a lot of reading and we share the best of what we find…” continued the answer.  That answer is one reason I respect this particular vendor so much. They are diligent specialists and very good at what they do.

The post Curate Content that Drives New Business appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Has a headline or subject line ever grabbed your attention and then everything else in your world disappeared for several minutes while you voraciously read a good article? Did your current project take a back seat while your mind relentlessly pursued more information in the article? Perhaps you stopped and wrote a note to the author because you just had to offer your timely and relevant feedback!

Best of all, maybe the article struck such a resonant chord that you finally made a decision to take some positive action and invest in yourself or your company.

That, my friends, is what good content is all about. We hear about “inbound marketing” and “content marketing” all the time these days, but what is it? Is it an article that’s trending with what most of the target market is thinking? Maybe. Is it a thought provoking piece about a controversial or potentially game-changing subject? Could be.

These examples tend to be lay ups in the world of content marketing. Simply sharing a good blogger’s materials is fine but it tends to get the recipient thinking more about the blogger than the sharer! Lay ups are okay for staying in the game but it’s the more dramatic half court and 3 point shots that win tournaments.

The Secret of Good Content

When you can hit someone with information that experience tells them is prescient and relevant, your’re doing content marketing right. Real world experience and true stories are what grab attention and move people to take action. It’s often the repeated issues that are right in front of us – the problems we can identify and solve right now that we need to be talking about.

You need not always be concerned with innovation or cutting edge technology or the latest best practices to get your target audience’s attention. What you need is authentic value communicated in way that your customers and prospects will benefit from.

If you’re an architect or interior designer, offer easy space planning or simple energy saving ideas. If you’re an attorney, provide ways people can stay informed of changing laws. If you’re a mortgage officer, write about how to manage an escrow account to avoid surprise recalculations. If you’re a manufacturer, share your supply chain expertise in ways that would save customers money. If you’re a printer, show off a direct mail piece with an unusually high rate of return.

These are just the first ideas off the top of my head. I’m sure you can come up with better content ideas for your clients. Perhaps someone like me can help you better develop your content and consistently distribute it.

Keep thinking about things that your audience would like to know more about. Chances are, if something interests you, it will interest them too.  Listen closely to your customers and provide content that answers the questions they’re asking. Keep a file of ideas. Always write down your ideas or you will forget them!

When you see a great article you want share, instead of just slapping up a link, take some time and write down your own thoughts on the same topic. Make it relate even more specifically to your customers.

Clear away the clutter of information overload by serving up content your audience wants to consume and can actually use. You’ll become known as an authentic value provider. You’ll be trusted and called first when it’s time for doing business.

The post Good Content Clears away Clutter appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

There is one precious commodity that most C-level executives guard with their lives – time. Pull them away from current work activity to instead focus on important long term strategies requiring changes in tactics and some will freak out. They may feel their time could be better spent going for the jugular or expediting a price driven deal, never mind positioning their firm for success in a rapidly changing regional and world economy. Understandably, most CEOs want to get to the bottom line and get to it now!

Time is indeed precious. We get that.

• We get that spending an extra hour providing critical information to the marketing manager could put that information in front of the right prospects at the right time. Timing is everything!

• We get that taking a few extra minutes to melt the ice with a new face at a networking event can lead to a profitable business relationship.

• We get that writing your best CV for a keynote speech, LinkedIn profile and website will qualify you as an expert in a major prospect’s mind.

• We get that reviewing and editing the firm’s online marketing, blog and social media content will keep the messages on target for attracting new business.

• We get that time spent being a resource for valuable, lead generating information for newsletters and trade articles helps clearly differentiate a company from its competition.

• We get that spending time building a reputation as the leader in the industry is priceless.

But is it measurable?

The new media channels that both consumers and businesspeople pay attention to are equipped with data capture, tracking and measurement tools. From every click that opens an email, visits a landing page, Likes a Facebook business page and generates a phone call, new business results are easily measured. Detailed reports are generated at will and the data are highly actionable for targeted marketing and sales follow up. And of course, old fashioned face to face networking is as measurable as it gets. Forge relationship + discover need = new client.

The Bottom Line

Those in the C-Suite who strive to work on the business rather than in it usually have a better view of where the organization is headed and where they should lead it. Investing time in communications that generate qualified incoming leads reduces the cost of sales dramatically over the long term. Perhaps not every reader will be convinced today but I’ll keep plugging away at this over time.

The post Who are you? Time Will Tell! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Call it a feature article, a white paper or a blog post. Maybe your written wisdom is a work of art like a tribute, reflection or poem. Whatever it is, if it’s thoughtful, articulate and valuable to an audience, it’s an asset and should be leveraged as such. Businesses need to create and disseminate information today or they will become obscure and lose relevancy in a crowded marketplace.

The good news for all businesses is there are myriad ways to share and disseminate information freely now. Effectively reaching a target audience of a few thousand used to cost tens of thousands of dollars in the glory days of old media. Today the same reach of exposure can be achieved at no dollar cost other than spending some of the time you’d be watching TV, by building your online networks instead.

Websites are the central communication hubs for businesses today and blogs are where visitors go to find out if the organization has a pulse. Blogs are best leveraged as an integral part of the organization’s website so search engine crawlers can detect the origins of the relevant, fresh, visible content for which they are sniffing. Google looks for dynamic, relevant content that is viewed, shared, back-linked and repeated so it’s best to keep your blog on your website.

Setting up 3 or 4 social media accounts and strategically syncing them for blog content sharing can get your message out instantly and to hundreds or thousands of people FREE! Then there’s email marketing. Newsletters work when the information is valuable. Every blog post can be a newsletter and vice versa. By the way, don’t make the mistake of only pushing your own promotional messages. Be alert. Pay attention to your network and what other people share. Learn from it.

Twitter is a wellspring of fresh valuable ideas and thought leadership. It’s where I often get ideas about which to write articles and blogs. Read people’s tweets and check out their linked content when it catches your eye. Leverage the work of others by sharing it. Engage valuable new business connections, clients and partners by commenting on and sharing their posts. Compliment people when they teach you something new and invite them to comment on your stuff or answer your questions. LinkedIn is exceptionally valuable for this, especially when you participate in Group discussions.

“But I don’t have enough content, I don’t know what to write about and I just don’t have the time with how busy I am…” Everyone reading this post is an expert at something, maybe a few things so saying you don’t know what to write about isn’t true. If you think you’re a bad writer, just dump your ideas out on paper and hire a good writer to edit your messages – it’s not expensive if you provide all the facts. Saying you don’t have time to write your blog and mange your social media networks usually doesn’t wash either. Do you have time for your favorite TV shows every weeknight or a few drinks “after work?” Does your alarm clock have an early morning setting?

It’s true that some professionals really don’t have the time to devote to content creation and online networking development. An architect’s time is better spent designing buildings; a lawyer’s time is most profitably spent litigating, counseling or defending clients. In some cases it makes sense to hire a professional communicator or agency to keep your blog content dynamic and your social media pages updated while you go out and slay dragons or bag trophies.

Increase the value of your business by increasing the quality and quantity of your information assets. So, in blogging it’s your call. Spend the time or spend the money. Either way, like a bank, you’ll see a nice ROA – return on assets.

Please Subscribe to my informative, content packed weekly newsletter by clicking here

The post Build Business Assets by Blogging appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.