Why You Should Blog... and how Meg will present a presentation she wishes not to present but if for the oodles of business presenting garnishes

Don't get me wrong -- I like it when you read my blog too... but what I would like you to know is that there is significent value in writing a business blog instead of just reading them.

On Thursday, I am giving a 10-minute presentation on business blogging at my BNI chapter in Ballantyne (Charlotte, NC). Each week we meet and another member tells the group a little about what they do. This time, I am speaking specifically on blogging and why it is valuable for businesses. Here is a little preview:

BNI Presentation June 11, 2009

First I will talk about me -- and dazzle the audience with a few quick facts like the fact that I have a Bachelor's Degree in Theatrical Production Arts... and some of these other bullets:

· Toured once w/ Pop Cover Band: Nik and the Nice Guys
· Have held positions as a Master Carpenter, Statistical Analyst, Sales person for a sporting goods store, professional artist, event planner and fundraiser.
· Relocated to the Carolinas 2 years ago
· Wrote a book about business networking for Introverts
· In 2001 began work at a software company where I wrote proposals, white papers, requirements documents, and website content, business & marketing plans – sparking my love of business writing, then became VP of Marketing Web & SEO firm where I did sales
· I began writing more instructional (how-to) articles on SEO and web
· Wrote for the local Business Journal and Daily Newspaper Blog on community, networking and technology, did radio & TV as tech expert
· Gained recognition for my “Geek Speak” (translating nerd-talk into understandable terms for the less tech-savvy) Articles published in a local business magazine
· Currently I write e-newsletters, manage websites, do search engine consulting, copywriting and powerpoint presentations in addition to business blogging.

...all of which I am sure will get tons of "oos and ahs..." as clearly I am very interesting and have experienced a diverse set of experiences which make me uniquely qualified to blog...

Then I will dive right into the beauty of business Blogs... and will probably read the following paragraph, feel awkward about reading it and then try to make it sound like I am being extemporaneous and fail miserably. At which point I will make a self-deprecating remark and laughter will ensue.

...here is that paragraph:

Thanks to the internet and free (or inexpensive blogging tools), any individual business owner or small company can have the same technological impact as the Charlotte Observer or the New York Times, CNN or Oprah. Through your blog you can become known as an expert in your field, and become sought after as a vendor, speaker, partner and resource. Having a blog is the strongest and best platform for sharing your ideas, best practices and expertise with the world.

"Whoa... Awesome" I will say, tying to pep up the crowd I am starting to lose... and then quickly and ungracefully, as I stumble around the ill-placed tables I will hand out 10 index cards--well 11 actually as the first one will be labeled:

"Reasons you need to blog"

Then I will ask 10 lucky people to read these cleverly worded, and fantastic reasons to blog. Some of which were parceled from other sites and re-worded slightly, something I hope will be considered more a complement to the original authors, than seen as plageristic - for that is never my intent... oh yes... back to the reading of the cards:

1. Blogging demonstrates your true commitment and passion for your industry—and you really have to show your commitment over the long-haul. Most people won’t be able to maintain a business blog over long periods of time, but those who do so are rewarded in recognition and credibility. Posting often and consistency is the key!

2. More than 147 million Americans use the Internet

3. Increase your reach beyond your company, town, and industry with a blog since it can be read from multiple places through syndication. Links and email blasts.

4. Your work should be working for you, building your reputation—not just a bullet point on a resume. (A blog is proof of your brilliance and expertise!)

5. Even your old blog entries are valuable and will be read years later—your work will live on and bring you new business for years to come.

6. A blog can increase your website traffic with links in and traffic driven your site will gain ranking and popularity with the search engines. Even if no one ever reads it!

7. You can influence your industry by being a thought-leader and demonstrating positive, actionable ways to make change all while carving out a name for yourself.

8. A blog can help build your personal network, and enable incredible connections with the world around you, (something not possible prior to wide-spread use of the Internet)

9. Your job is changing, and you might want to be involved in the process of what your new job will include—at your current company, or beyond. What do you want to be?

10. Over time, your blog will contain an increasingly rich and relevant wealth of information that will be a Google magnet. Thus, you will become more and more available to the customers you need to attract.

Then I will add in a couple witty and well written reasons that Blogs are great. I will also read these, but I will notice my time is getting short so I will paraphrase, smartly pointing the audience to this blog for the actual original paragraphs:

1 You can be a ROCK STAR by providing an unlimited amount of vital information in a single location. Because Web visitors are desperately seeking answers to their most pressing questions, you have the opportunity to provide just the right answers for your ideal target customers.

2 Blogs enable you to organize your information almost effortlessly to the benefit of your visitors by putting them into ‘categories.’

3 Unlike other social media tools, such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, your blog is open to the entire world.

4 You can request visitors to register and offer them enticements such as a free e-book or eNewsletter – growing your prospect list while offering them beneficial information, (and positioning yourself as a subject-matter expert).

Then quickly I will point out the reasons to hire a Business Blogger... of course indicating that I would be an awesome choice for this...

Keeping up on writing your blogs and making sure that they are linked properly is a lot of work—often sometimes the internal marketing staff or small business owner is unable to do this while focusing on what they do best… run their business.

I provide a low-cost way to maintain a blog by:

· Creating all new content and posting regularly
· By supplementing your entries with keyword-rich and relevant posts
· By editing what you have written or modifying found articles in you voice.

Business Blogging has is a powerful tool for increasing traffic to a corporate site, informing the public, connecting with customers and sharing information in a casual and informative way. By utilizing a business blog writer, you can capture a pool or prospecting clients and fans, all while focusing on what you do best: Your Business.

Bow, smile, exit stage left.

Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

Fabulous February

February starts on Sunday with much anticipated football game in the Wier house. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the team of choice and whilst I am neither adamant fan nor foe, I do wish, for the sake of the men in house, that they do not fail in their pursuit of yet another Super Bowl ring.

SO that is day 1 of February. The rest of the month is looking just as exciting, (at least for me, perhaps not for the Steelers). Confessions of an Introvert becomes officially available (although it technically hit the online stores this past week) and I am scheduled to do at least one radio interview related to that. If I get over my shyness and anxiety, at least momentarily, I will walk myself into a couple of bookstores and see if I can schedule a signing or two--which could be fun, or it could be mortifying...but good for the book nonetheless...hopefully.

The end of February will see me getting ready to go for a quick visit to Colorado to celebrate my sister's pending new addition. This will be quite an experience, as my own pending new addition is due mid-late April, and I am already feeling quite aware of the obvious timeline of the Spring months. ---that wasn't meant to be as cryptic as that came out...let me try again: I am pregnant and by the end of the month I will be enormous and crabby.

I have plenty of work-projects to fill the time in between the big events this month. Business blogging and copywriting are becoming very important to many small businesses as the economy staggers. While I am not complaining about having the extra work, it would be nice if the economy would stop staggering... But while I ride it out, I have plenty of writing to do--on subjects big and small: Charlotte Web Design, to Mint Hill Real Estate, Sports Marketing to Weight Loss... etc. Life is good, and I get to write. I can't ask for more.

(see how I stuck those targeted links in there... clever huh!)

I have to conclude this post, as Facebook and my Amazon ranking are beckoning me. Darn the Internet.

-Meg
www.meghanwier.com



Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

If I wait to come out of the fog...

If I wait to come out of the fog, it just might not happen. Much blogging and organizing has taken place over the last few days, unfortunately, it is hard to tell from the outside looking in and none of it was done here and for my own personal gain. However, as the aforementioned was billable, I can't complain.

I had a lovely meeting today with the ever-outstanding and dashing gentleman, Rich Ferretti. I am a blogging maniac when it comes to real estate in Charlotte, and this is all Rich's fault. He may just be the only busy realtor out there right now, but he is doing something right, and keeping me busy to boot (see Rich's latest blog). He is such an incredible and wise man -- and I look forward to his take on the importance of attendance at BNI tomorrow.... and you better believe I don't dare miss that one :)

Company in this week, followed by a birthday party, Thanksgiving, a trip to Denver, Christmas and a trip to Florida. After that I actually think Mexico is on the agenda, although formal plans have yet to be made. Luckily business blogging is a go-anywhere kind of business and so I continue to blog, blog, blog (could they not have thought of a more elegant name for this?)

There will be more later although I can't guarantee if that means in the short term or not. I have neglected this personal blog as a time management necessity to write the rest. (See "billable" above), but will endeavour to update as a matter of course.

until later...


Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

On a Muggy Wednesday...

I find myself with a perfectly good laptop, 10 minutes… and no internet access!! Sitting here in the muggy Charlotte September afternoon at the Baxter Starbucks, I seem unable to connect to Wifi. This is likely due to a lapse in re-loading my Starbucks gift card or something, however, the end result is that I am unable to procrastinate OR work. So as a compromise, I decided to catch you up on my comings and goings in word-doc format, to be posted on my blog as soon as I am re-hooked into the matrix, (or in reality, late at night before I turn off the computer for the night).

It has been a busy couple weeks. It has in fact been busy for as long as I can remember, but the last few weeks stand out just because of the amount of work and traveling I have been doing. Some of my very eager networking contacts have taken it upon themselves to introduce me with everyone they know. Consequently, I have had several meetings, virtual and the old fashioned way, and have acquired several new clients. This is good. However, now I need to WORK. Too bad I have no internet access with which to do that. Best laid plans…

The last couple weeks have included visits to Tampa FL and Lexington KY, and I fly off to Madison WI this Friday. Luckily airports are wonderfully inspirational places to write—and they often offer a level of wifi more conducive to my current accelerated need.

BNI tomorrow morning in Ballantyne: a good thing. Even better, I won’t have to immediately get in the car and drive 9 hours afterwards as I have done the last couple weeks. I will however have to work, and pack, but that is all doable, at least in theory.

My darling son, inspired by a recent trip to the Kentucky Horse Park has chosen a “horse” theme for his birthday. In all honestly, “Sponge Bob” was his first choice, but since I put the mommy-veto on that (what would the neighbor mommies think!?) I now have to come up with a pony to ride…. Yippee. Anyone know where I can rent a pony? So the next month or so I will be collecting cowboy memorabilia, and cheap horse-themed party favors. I would like to find some nice local horse barn (clean??) with a set-up conducive to kid’s parties, have the kids come, pet some horses, learn about how to put a saddle on, or brush a horse, take 3 turns around a circle on some old pony, eat some cake and then go home…seems reasonable right? (ug…I so could throw the best Sponge Bob party… too bad it is politically incorrect amongst the preschool parents).

A casual observation: it seems to be white-striped button-down shirt day at Starbucks… I am rather out-of-place in my green floral dress…. Hmmm. At least I am cool like them and have my laptop…

Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

Blogging for Business

I am preparing a presentation this weekend for my BNI group in North Carolina. If you have any Blogging for Business questions, please comment or email me: meg@meghanwier.com.

THANKS -- Meg

Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

Blogging, Blog Writing, Business Blogging and BNI

I am the speaker next week at the Ballantyne Business Network BNI meeting and I am starting to put together my materials for the presentation.

My 10 minute talk will be on blogging for business--a topic that I am very familiar with, and one which I will enjoy sharing with the group.

However, this group of people is a new one for me, and I am nervous about it already. So I am making up for my lack of comfort with preparation--thinking about what I want to say and how I want to say it, a whole week early. Luckily, the topic is a passion, and speaking in public is always made easier when I know the subject matter as well.

That said, I have much preparation to do, and a week hardly seems like enough given all of the other responsibilities I have this week.

Pete McGourty, Charlotte-based life coach extraordinaire has asked me to write everyday as an exercise to pull out my thoughts and creativity, and to dump out that which is muddling my mind. I am remiss to say, that I have scrapped the paper method he prescribed and have taken up blogging instead. Call it a modern twist on good old-fashioned life coaching, (is there such a thing as "old fashioned life coaching"??) But alas, if you find my entries start to ramble more than usual--blame it on Pete. I am doing my homework...

All this blogging and soul-searching and web focus has made me want to really dig in and get my own sites and blogs in better shape. I should be making some changes over the next few months before the re-launch of Confessions of an Introvert to the blogs and site.

Well -- I need to go do laundry, clean up the kitchen, run the vacuum, get the mail, pay the bills, and take a pain killer for my back before I head out to my son's soccer practice.

Meg



Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

Business Blogging, Writing All Day, and Movies from the 90's

(for 200 Alex...)

I had a busy weekend, and surprisingly I did not take my usual Sunday nap. I am a firm believer in the theory that you can make up for not sleeping during the week, by sleeping on the weekends. I am sure there are actual doctors with fancy degrees who would tell you otherwise, but I am totally ok with thinking I can make up for my bad sleeping habits with a good nap every 6 or 7 days.

--except today.

Today I went to the gym, did breakfast with the family, signed up to go horse back riding at the Ann Springs Greenway, watched a few old movies (Bruce Willis marathon...) and wrote. And wrote. And wrote. In act, as you will note I am still writing... odd. Actually today I have been trying to get some of my past blogs updated with some good meaningful content. I have a ton of great stories to tell, and business networking advice to share and I needed to get that out to those of you who are hungry for it. Besides, blogging is good for business -- especially when you are a business blogger....

Well, I have neglected to do my morning papers today. Perhaps my excessive writing about writing will suffice for the day.

Busy week coming up with a lot of funfilled activities and networking. I am hoping that I can get some good writing in this week as well. My blogs are in a sorry state and I have to make sure that my clients don't go ignored while I am networking and horse-back riding!

- On that note, I always tell my business blogging clients not to ramble and I have come to that point where I started on a ramble and I am ending on one as well. -- So if you are looking for something a touch more coherent -- check out the Blogging for Business blog.






Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

oh oh! Better get back to blogging

Ok, so now total strangers are starting to tell me I am not blogging enough! It used to be just my mom, but I logged on today to find comments on several of my blogs. Sorry guys - I will try to be better. As an introvert I think that sometimes we forget that there is a bigger world...

I am fresh off my vacation and If I figure out a way to post a picture or two, I will. Vacation was wonderful. Time with family, sisters, my niece. It was great.

Vacation brain is still clouding my ability to get things done, but I have been doing a bit of research on how to get my book on amazon to rank better. It seems there are a lot of SEO-ish ways to get a better ranking - and the better ranked books come up higher when searches happen and generally sell better. Which -- then in turns brings the ranking up (or in fact "down" as a lower number is better).

One way to get a better ranking is for people to write reviews about your book. And if those people have reviewed before, the ranking increase will be better, especially if their other reviews were voted "helpful". The ins and outs of that is a little nutty and probably a bit more complicated than Google in some ways.

Now, Amazon won't let anyone write a review unless they have bought something on Amazon before - or vote for helpfulness or "tag" an item either. I think this is probably to disuade people from creating reviews falsely. Which, as annoying as it is as the author, is respected.

Anyway the SEO-person in me is enjoying the challenge of learning as much as I can, and the author in me obviously wants my book to be ranked as best it can be.

So I am actively soliciting reviews as a starter, and learning as much as I can about getting those rankings up.

This week I cave company in, so I will try not to avoid my updates here, but, given my track record, I can't promise anything.... :)

Business Blogging

I am getting ready to send out my business blogging post-cards to businesses here in Charlotte, and I hope to pick up a couple more clients in the next few weeks while balancing my current work load.

Things in the blogging business are good. Although it is interesting how things have changed in the last year. Blogs have probably reached their peak--with those who are going to create them having done so. In a year's time I predict we will have moved into the next craze--at least from a personal writing standpoint. I do think that blogging for business will grow however as more and more people see the benefits of an archivable and easily searchable resource for things like news, frequently asked questions, etc.

A couple years ago I met a woman who was setting up blogs - and "blog strategies" for clients and asked to partner with a Web company I was working at. I remember thinking that she would never make money doing that- and I mistakenly was under the impression that blogs were nothing but a fad for teens to blather on about their angst. --Now they are for that too, but a blog can be an extension of a corporate site, a tool for information sharing and prospecting and organizing.

Here are a couple thing one should know about blogging... If you are using a blog creator such as blogger, you do not own the code. The information that you post is yours but it sits on a server and in code that is not yours. It could go away at any time. If this content is valuable to you, save it. Cut and paste it into a .doc or have the posts get emailed to you (and save those). While Google's Blogger and the other free Blog sites are probably not going anywhere, it is better to be save than sorry.

Also, it is important to understand linking. Who you link to and who links to you will set up your blog and the sites that it is connected to for possible heavy traffic. You may be forever connected. While this is a remarkable tool for those of us looking to create "webs" of information and build credibility with the SE's, it is important to track where the links to your site are coming from and carefully link out. In order for a blog to generate higher PR and traffic, it must link to the parent or corporate site.

--on a personal note, Charlotte is lovely. But the weather-people don't know much about bad weather! We had a forecast of cold wet weather today. Now admittedly it was overcast some of the day - but the temp was between 66 and 70. Perfectly acceptable for March! Tomorrow they say it will be "much nicer" -- mid 70s. It is all good. Kid is feeling better, dog's problem has been resolved and besides the house-work that is piling up, things are decent. I even got my SC liscense yesterday (although it took 2 trips to Lancaster...long story). Also happy to let you know I am working on a blog for Team Events in NY - Ask the Party Planner. Want to plan an event in NY/NJ? I know who to talk to!

Thanks to all who check in and read this little blog. I look forward to hearing from you all.

...y'all.

-Meg