Author Archives: Todd Hyten

10.11.10
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Use paper.li to read your custom Twitter list

One of the great things about the social media world is that there’s always some fun technology to play with. So it was with some interest I stumbled very late onto paper.li. You can check out the here, but let me give you the lowdown.

Paper.li takes a Twitter stream, and turns it into an online newspaper-like format, complete with top stories, sections, topic areas, and even rotating live Twitter posts. You can create any paper you want based on 1) a Twitter account name, 2) any hashtag-identified topic, 3) any List anyone has made in Twitter.

So how can you use this for marketing purposes?  If you are doing research on a topic and are looking for ideas for a blog (or for any content-related reason), you can either scan your Tweetdeck or Seesmic or Hootsuite — or you can create something that’s easy to read.

The paper.li option is the “something that’s easy to read” option. Here’s the downside though: it updates once a day. I know – that’s a huge downside … but it has its uses. Not everyone can stay connected to every topic 24/7 — and many shouldn’t even try. You’ve got businesses to run.

For those of you who have made custom Lists in Twitter – using paper.li to follow those less-frequently visited lists is great. Imagine checking in once a day to see what your list of the top-20 movers in your market had to say on Twitter.

Here’s what I absolutely do NOT recommend. There’s a “Promote” button on every paper.li page, and many people think it’s great to Tweet out the latest edition of their newspaper. Here’s the problem: all the Twitter update messages look the same. Meaning all the users of paper.li who hit the “Promote” button have the same message — it looks like spam, in other words.

So my advice is not to robo-tweet your newspaper updates. I think paper.li is a better tool for internal, behind-the-scenes monitoring. Sure, if you have several newspapers set up and you want to promote it, go ahead — but make it a manual post linking to a specific item. Just as if you were RT-ing anything else.

Don’t go overboard. Like many things, paper.li is just a tool. It has plenty of flaws. I’m not sure exactly what the algorithm is that decides what-goes-where when you create your Twitter newspaper. And I’m not sure I get how the separate sections are put together either. So — it’s just a snapshot in time. Still, I suggest giving paper.li a whirl.

10.06.10
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20 ideas for your storefront/retail business blog

storefront

By David Lytle

To follow up on my last post, here are 20 blog ideas for small businesses. I wrote these ideas with small business/retail storefronts in mind.

  1. Being local: Write about your neighborhood.
  2. Being local: Blog about hot topics in your town.
  3. Being local: What’s in your store window? Take a pic, upload and talk about it.
  4. Share your expertise: big picture view. Know a lot about your market? Comment on it.
  5. Share your expertise: the small picture view. Comment on a single item/product.
  6. Inventory inventory inventory: what’s selling now and why (with pics!).
  7. Inventory inventory inventory: what’s coming on the market soon (and what you love/don’t love).
  8. Market observer: find other s/blogs on your market – comment on their posts.
  9. Market observer: be a news watcher in your market. Set up a Google Alert on a topic and relay key news.
  10. Company culture: share a story on what makes your company/firm unique.
  11. Company culture: case study. Talk about how you helped a client, customer.
  12. Company culture: quote of the day. Someone say something interesting that’s’ enlightening – quote them!
  13. Off topic: It’s OK to go off topic and just chat about something that inspires you.
  14. Be social: Go ahead and link and mention your neighboring businesses (they love that).
  15. Be social: Follow local news and businesses on Twitter — you’ll get blog ideas from these I promise.
  16. Be social: Start a discussion on Facebook or ask for customer ideas/feedback — and blog about responses.
  17. Support local charities/causes: Show that you care, get involved. Just because it feels good to do it.
  18. Solve customer/client problems: See a common problem/issue you resolve with many customers? Blog about it.
  19. Have fun: something crack everyone up at work? Blog about it.
  20. Be you: Let customers know something about your experience (and why they should trust you).
10.06.10
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Get your feet wet in blogging: start a Tumblr blog in 60 seconds

If your small business has a , the best thing you can do to get noticed is to add a blog. According to analytics firm HubSpot, adding a blog has real, powerful results:

  • 55% more visitors
  • 97% more inbound links
  • 434% more indexed pages

    • But I know many of you out there may think of this as a big headache. Now you have to call up your web guy/gal and figure this out. And then there’s the big issue: what to blog about?

    I’m convinced of the theory that you learn by doing. Just get started and you’ll learn. If you want to just “get your feet wet” in blogging, I have a great experiment you can try.

    Set up a blog on Tumblr. If you go there, you’ll see that you can create a blog in minutes — if not 60 seconds or less — and it’s free. Don’t like what you see? Delete the blog with a click of a button. You have nothing to lose.

    No kidding. Input your email, think of a unique password for your blog, and name your blog and you’ve made your new blog. Once you’ve done that, start playing with the settings and you’ll see you can choose from dozens and dozens of beautiful templates.

    Now go and start your own.

    Once you see how great this is, you’ll want to add a blog to your business site eventually. But just get your feet wet for now — with no fuss