“What do we publish?” That is one of the most frequently asked questions I hear from hotels as they begin participating in social media. Content publishing can be a challenge for anyone but with the right systems, the process gets easier. I demonstrated this process during an online class at ReviewPro last week, and wanted to share with you the highlights of how to build an effective social publishing program.

Part 1: Before you begin publishing

“Think like a publisher.

Create remarkable content.

Distribute it as far as possible.”

This has been my mantra since I began getting serious about online publishing. I wrote this out and posted it by my desk after reading The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott, and following this approach at every step helped me build Hotel Marketing Strategies into the #1 source of original hotel marketing advice worldwide. You can also use it to establish your hotels as leaders in your market.

Content is a strategic asset

This concept of “thinking like a publisher” is so important because online content is becoming a strategic business asset.

Why?

Research has indicated upwards of 90% of travel purchases begin with a web search. When you are publishing answers to the questions people look for, the chances of someone finding you increases dramatically. For this reason, websites that publish travel planning advice often become the most popular. If you look at some of the biggest travel sites in the world, such as TripAdvisor, you can see they were built around the concept of service – providing answers and advice to travelers.

Think of all the questions that go through your head when you plan a trip to a new city: everything from airport transportation to dining and shopping options to activities to do in the area. Savvy organizations are using what I call the concierge approach to content marketing: the practice of publishing material to proactively answer questions. This can take many forms – from articles, to Twitter updates, to videos on YouTube. But hotels create this for one purpose: to help their customers and guests.

Publishing content is also a strategic asset because it builds competitive advantage. Creating great content requires a creative approach, which makes it difficult for your competitors to copy.

Content must be linked to the buying process

Understanding that people look for different things at each stage of their travel planning can help to guide the publishing process.

• Before trip – the “dreaming” phase
  • Your job: Help with planning
  • Best tools: Blogging, video, photos

• During trip
  • Your job: Service for enjoyable, memorable time
  • Best tools: Twitter, mobile

• After trip
  • Your job: Get them to share online
  • Best tools: Review sites, Flickr

Content should relate to your audience

You probably already know some basic demographic details about your clientele, but it is worth researching this a bit more. Better knowledge of the people you’re trying to reach helps you answer the right questions and identify the most appropriate resources to share.

No publisher knows exactly what their readers want until they actually start publishing and then measure the feedback. So start now, test various forms of content, and experiment until you find a mix that generates the best results for you.

“A key to engaging content is put the customer first, to solve her problems and answer his questions. This requires understanding their beliefs, feelings, wants and needs.” – Keith Wiegold, the Content Marketing Institute

Content needs a style guide

We often talk about social media policies, but let’s assume you already have one in place at your organization. A key part of running an effective social publishing program is developing a style guide that will direct the process.

As you create content, it’s very important to remember where your brand is positioned in the market. I find that the types of content that work well online don’t vary much across different hotel segments, but the “voice” and tone – the style in which you communicate – varies widely. How should your Twitter authors, for example, use humor? What might be seen as edgy for one brand might cross the line into bad taste for another. So be sure to set the expectations in your style guide. A style guide keeps all your content consistent, and allows you to engage multiple people in the publishing process.

Part 2: Identifying the right content to publish

A look at the most popular hotels on Twitter and Facebook reveals some common themes about what content types get the greatest response.

10 things to post on Twitter

1. Responses to questions, comments and mentions
2. Retweets of positive feedback
3. Retweets of other resources
4. Recommendations
5. Media mentions
6. Questions
7. Contests
8. Real-time information
9. Personal thoughts
10. HR and recruiting

10 things to post to Facebook

1. Professional photography
2. Photos from your staff
3. Photos from your guests and fans
4. Curated lifestyle content
5. New amenity announcements
6. Staff interviews or profiles
7. Polls and surveys
8. Syndicated content from other networks
9. Contests
10. Deals and special offers

Part 3: Practical tips for producing the content

How to find the content

The top challenge for publishers on the social web is finding and producing high-quality content. Overcome this by thinking about co-creation opportunities – getting your guests to help you in the publishing process. Not only does this help reduce your workload, but it provides several distinct advantages:

1. Potential to increase brand loyalty: active participation in content production can create a sense of ownership.
2. Greater depth of information – there’s a reason Wikipedia is over 25 times larger than the Encyclopedia Britannica; everyone working together can create more content than one individual organization. A wide range of information is essential for reaching the long tail of niche web searches.
3. Guest’s perspective: travel planners would rather hear from other guests than from marketers like us.
4. Increased search visibility: Neislen Buzz Metrics reports 26% of all search results link to user-created content.
5. Free & candid market research: guests will be freely talking about what they like and don’t like – without interruptive surveys or focus groups.

The next time you receive positive feedback, ask the guest for some type of online contribution. Have them share that experience online with their friends.

“The minute we overstep in that community and try to push our message and not celebrate the message of the community our disconnects shoot up. You have to co-create and participate and honor the community.” – Coca-Cola Marketing SVP Wendy Clark

In order to encourage people to share content online, you need to communicate what they have to gain from the process. It allows them to share experiences with friends and family. It helps other travelers. It builds their own social profile.

A big trend in the area of content co-creation is blending journalism with professional editorial content. For example, CNN is experimenting with “Open Stories” which combines crowdsourced coverage and material from professional journalists. This process works well in news, and can also be very useful for travel companies.

Other sources of inspiration

A big thing that differentiates the best publishers is they have better inputs. High-quality sources help writers create high-quality content. Build a system that helps you identify new stories:

• RSS reader to track the newest stories from a diverse range of websites
• Twitter lists that allow you to actively follow a diverse group of people
• Delicious hot links and Tweetmeme for trends
• Local news and event websites such as Patch.com

Get organized

The best publishers are also usually the most organized. As data overwhelm becomes an increasingly dangerous threat, the need to source, store, categorize, and retrieve information becomes increasingly important. Build a toolkit to help you with the publishing process.

1. An idea collection system, such as Evernote or Delicious bookmarking
2. A story planning system, such as mindmapping
3. An editorial calendar (Building an online audience is all about consistency and quality, and a calendar is essential for this)

Depending on your needs, you may need additional supporting tools. We put together a list of 18 tools here that can help you with publishing: http://reviewp.ro/publishingtools

Promote your content

Publishing has little value unless people actually see the content. This is why it’s a good rule of thumb to spend half your time creating, and half your time promoting. You need good content and good coverage.

Often, the best way to promote your material is to re-purpose it for many different channels. Repurposing & reposting content helps you reach new audiences. This is why I encourage publishers to think like a DJ – always “remixing” their published content. This can take many forms:

• Blog posts
• Email
• Newsletters
• Articles
• PDFs for download
• Press releases
• Case studies
• Video
• Twitter updates

Make the content easy to spread and share: encourage people to include your content on their websites, and pass it along via Twitter and other channels. David Meerman Scott talks a lot about losing control of your message if you want it to spread.

Identify partners with influence scoring

The right partnerships can accelerate the spread of your content online, and influence scoring is a good way to identify potentially valuable partners. Once you have identified the influential voices in your niche, work to develop mutually beneficial relationships with them.

Think internationally

The web is not just about the English-speaking market, and this is especially true in the travel industry. For many hotel groups, significant opportunities exist in distributing content in local markets around the world. If you want your messages to receive maximum coverage, establish a plan for raising global visibility.

Begin with translation. Taking your existing content and translating it to other languages is a good first step. Start by translating core “evergreen” content – such as a city guide.

Quickly proceed to creating localized content. Different audience may have different needs. Isabelle Lozano of the Apostrophe Hotel in Paris is one of the most interesting examples I’ve seen of this. Their entire website is built as an online magazine, with a significant amount of original content. She creates unique content in French and in English, since she finds that these audiences have different questions and interests. Chances are good that your hotels would benefit from a similar approach.

–

You can view the slides from my presentation about social publishing here, and watch the ReviewPro blog for exclusive interviews we did with the Roger Smith Hotel and Apex Hotels.

If you’re looking for a way to manage your hotels’ entire social media program, request a demo of ReviewPro and ask about the new publishing tools that were added recently.

One of the big ideas from ITB this year is really an age-old concept: the value of telling stories to share ideas. While you can (and should) tell stories about everything you do, here are the three most compelling stories I see from a sales perspective:

“How I chose them” (A customer’s decision making process)

Tell this story because: Having a happy customer explain the process she went through to purchase your product will be something your prospects can relate to.

“Why I chose them” (A customer’s testimonial)

Tell this story because: Having a happy customer tell the story of why he ended up choosing you might reveal motivators that appeal to other prospects. It could include buying criteria you didn’t think of. And the story of why to buy from you best comes from a customer, not a salesperson.

Examples:

Story Hotels uploads hand-written guest comment cards -

Software company Eloqua uses testimonials to share benefits buyers receive -

How we made it (Showcasing your teams’ talent)

Tell this story because: Having the architects of your product or experience explain the creation process they went through raises perceived value and makes your offering much more appealing to others.

Examples:

Faena Hotel + Universe in Buenos Aires -

Ask for Me campaign from theWit Chicago -

The Kilted Doorman at the Hotel Missoni -

Are you telling these three stories?

I was introduced to Room with a View Blog by Guillaume on episode 6 of This Week in Hotels, and loved the multimedia format. For me, it accomplished the goal of any good destination blog: gave a preview of things I could do in Vancouver as a visitor.

Today, I talk with author Rishad Daroowala about:

• The design of the blog – why Rishad wanted the layout to focus on the content
• How they tried to separate Room with a View blog from other hotel blogs and hotel websites
• How they are integrating social media networks into the blog
• Which social network is bringing the most interaction and discussions
• What metrics they watch (and why it’s not a priority)
• How Rishad puts himself in the shoes of the reader
• How he comes up with topics to write about – and manages these with an editorial calendar
• The information gathering system Rishad to source new content ideas
• How he works with the PR director to manage news
• The best ways to grow the popularity of the blog

Listen to our conversation here:

Prefer to listen on the go? Download the mp3 here

I need a lot of input to inspire new ideas. And traditional print magazines are some of best learning tools for me. (I must thank Darren at Problogger who introduced me to the concept with this article.)

As digital publishers, we can learn a lot from magazines.

• What type of content is included
• How the information is presented
• Graphic design
• etc, etc

My favorite (non-hotel) magazines

Monocle

The ultimate lifestyle magazine in my mind, no other publication includes everything I’m interested in and aspire towards: current events, culture, design, business, fashion.

Great illustrations. Great use of advertorial content. I aspire to become the Monocle of hotel marketing.

My lesson for HMS: mixed topics up. Don’t just stay with one subject all the time. Rather than writing about a topic, I’m more interested in appealing to a type of reader (our “Shakers”!).

Economist

Graphically unimpressive and sometimes a little nerdy, but the best news reporting in the world in my opinion.

I exclusively get my news from The Economist, because I feel it’s largely absent from the hype and spin of most news outlets. Yes, their editorial content does have opinion, but they seem to have less of an agenda to push. Plus, most of the material is real news — not manufactured fluff to amuse the masses.

My lesson for HMS: people like news. Smart sells. Tell it like it is — and tell people why it matters.

Wired

This magazine does an excellent job of making data interesting. I enjoy some of the reporting they do on technology trends, and like how the writers go behind the scenes to profile the people behind these companies and technologies.

My lesson for HMS: Try to make trends simple through illustration. Show the people behind the technology.

Wallpaper

One of my favorite design magazines, I really don’t take time to read most of the editorial content – but many of the images are stunning.

My lesson for HMS: Use better photos!

Esquire

They produce a lot of good interviews. Like the ones I did with Robert Patterson and Dan Sherman.

My lesson for HMS: Interviews can be fun…just mix it up a bit.

What do you learn from your favorite magazines?

[Feature Photo from our Hotel Design Pool: One of the pools at the RIU Tikida Dunas Hotel in Agadir, Morocco. Thank you, Daniel Atkins!]

This week, I’m departing from Hotelier Highlights’ usual format and instead featuring the best hotel marketing sites and the innovators who publish them.

These featured sites:

• Frequently publish, guest-publish, or host free and original digital hotel marketing strategies content.
• Communicate effectively with readers via Twitter, Facebook, online forums, blog comments or though interviews and personal exchanges.
• Prove through their own Google searchability that they know how to create and sustain a visible online presence — lending real-world cred to their digital marketing advice.

Basically, they encourage beginners like me to wrap our heads around a barrage of new digital applications, the hotelier-mindset, the shifting world of social media marketing, and every other development that’s shaking up the hospitality industry.

Even better, they inspire hoteliers and marketers to discuss and develop their own strategies. Haven’t given yours much thought? Eager to become an expert in your own right? There’s no time like the present; dive in!

14 Great Hotel Marketing Websites

1. HospitalityNet.org
Contact HospitalityNet.org
Recent Highlight: Revenue Management or Urban Myth?

2. Hotel-Blogs.com
Meet and Contact the Blogger: Guillaume Thevenot
Follow Guillaume on Twitter
Recent Highlight: This Week in Hotels #5 (Foursquare, Online Concierge, Hotel Website Review)

3. FabriceBurtin.com
Meet and Contact the Blogger: Fabrice Burtin
Follow Fabrice on Twitter
Recent Highlight: Managing the Last Impression in Hotels

4. a.nthonygreen.com
Meet and Contact the Blogger: Anthony Green
Follow Anthony on Twitter
Recent Highlight: What to Look for in a Hotel Booking Engine?

5. Hotelinsight.wordpress.com
Contact Hotel Insight
Follow Hotel Insight on Twitter
Recent Highlight: Nite Nite

6. YoungHotelier.com
Meet the Bloggers: Jitendra Jain (JJ) and Erin O’Neill
Recent Highlight: Hotel Stories: Exceeding Expectations with Exceptional Service

7. HappyHotelier.com
Meet the Blogger:Guido vanden Elshout
Contact Guido vanden Elshout
Follow Guido vanden Elshout on Twitter
Follow Happy Hotelier’s Favorite Hotel Marketing Tweeple
Recent Highlight: Using Tweepml to Manage your Twitter Contacts and do away with #ff and #tt

8. Blog.DanielEdwardCraig.com
Meet the Blogger: Daniel Edward Craig
Contact Daniel
Follow Daniel on Twitter
Recent Highlight: Is the Role of the Hotel Concierge Going Obsolete?

9. eHotelier.com
About eHotelier
Contact eHotelier
Follow eHotelier on Twitter
Recent Highlight: Revenue Management or Urban Myth?

10. HospitalityeBusiness.com/blog
About HospitalityeBusiness
Contact HospitalityeBusiness
Follow HospitalityeBusiness on Twitter
Recent Highlight: Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS) to Present during Mobile Technology & Travel Keynote Session at EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit

11. HrabaConsulting.com/blog
Meet the Blogger: Michael Hraba
Recent Highlight: Facebook & TripAdvisor; an issue for Google or Yelp?

12. HotelMarketingStrategies.com
Meet the Blogger: Josiah Mackenzie
Contact Josiah
Follow Josiah on Twitter
Recent Highlight: Top 10 Reports for Hotels to run in Google Analytics

The next two blogs aren’t exclusively hotel marketing focused, but they’re joining the conversation, testing strategies, and producing some great content. Rock on.

13. MitaroyGoaHotel.com
Meet the Blogger: Mihir Nayak
Contact Mihir
Follow Mihir on Twitter
Recent Highlight: How Social search is Replacing Google

14. OnlineFantastic.wordpress.com
Meet and Contact the Blogger: Lucie Hys
Follow Lucie on Twitter
Recent Highlight: Social Media & Hotels: Top 5 Blunders

I’d love to find, read and share even more great sites. Give your favorites some love in the comments!

I love people that put new ideas into action immediately. After reading my article on Tumblr, Mihir (a member of my advisory group) tested out the site for his Mitaroy Goa Hotel. Here’s his review:

Tumblr Update Number 3: I love it, I love it, I love it!

I have been on Tumblr all yesterday and today, and suddenly, Twitter and WordPress seem “so 2006 Dahling”

Tumblr does take a while to get used to but once you find your feet, Tumblr is just great. (http://www.tumblr.com/why-tumblr)

Tumblr is like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumble Upon and Flickr all rolled into one.

The dashboard is really simple and I love the many options you have at a click of a button including new media such as audio and video. I got myself a new phone so I hope to be on Tumblr uploading photos and videos more often now.

Tumblr is also great on the web – I got a Share on Tumblr bookmark and whenever I seem something interesting all I need to do is click. Sharing is that easy. You can also automotically send your Tumblr feed to both Twitter and Facebook. I have also integrated Twitter onto my Tumblr desktop so I rarely need to leave.

My next step is to “follow” interesting Tumbelogs on Tumblr. I’l keep you posted on how it goes…

But in the meanwhile, check out my Tumblr page at http://mihirnayak.tumblr.com

Or why not try it out yourself and tell us how you fared ?

Very simply, if you can’t blog with Tumblr, you probably never will…

Cheers
Mihir

Ever since I started blogging about eight years ago, I’ve been a huge supporter of the WordPress blogging software. I still love it, and think it’s still probably the best all-around platform. If for no other reason, the huge number of 3rd-party themes and plugins make it a very customizable solution.

But as I work with hotels on starting blogging initiatives, the big thing most people lack is the time to write posts. Even though you don’t have to write a 500-word article each time, the thought of having to sit down at a keyboard and write a new post can be intimidating.

So I’ve been looking at some alternatives, and experimented quite a bit with Tumblr recently.

I know it’s not brand-new technology, and many others have been using this for a while.

With the little testing I’ve done so far, what I like about Tumblr is how simple it is. You can get a blog up and running in about 15 minutes, and there’s no cost. Even better, it seems to encourage multimedia publishing, with sharing photos, video, and audio very easy.

It seems that hotels interested in lifestyle blogging would find this a natural fit.

Morgans Hotel Group starts tumbling

A few days ago, Morgan’s Hotel group received some publicity for their new Tumblr “back of house” blog. As you can see, they’re reaching a specific lifestyle audience:

The content looks a bit unorganized right now, but I’m interested to watch as this develops.

Blogging can be easy

So maybe this works for you, or maybe it doesn’t – but I just wanted to let you know blogging can be simple. Whichever platform you use, just make sure you get out there and do it!

Has anyone else tried Tumblr? Share your experience in the comments below…

Today I had the opportunity to talk with Jeremy Silverman, one of the web’s top hotel lifestyle bloggers, and publisher of Future Blog for Design Hotels. Below is an excerpt from our conversation…

Josiah: Can you tell us a bit about Design Hotels and your role there as Head of Brand Experience?

Jeremy: Design Hotels, a Berlin based company, was founded 16 years ago with the goal of uniting independent hotels from around the world in one location. Our CEO and founder of the company, Claus Sendlinger, began compiling a portfolio of hoteliers in his professional and personal network who together formed the earliest incarnation of Design Hotels. From there, it’s evolved into a full service strategic partner for hotels; we do everything from e-marketing to sales representation around the world. We do in-house PR and creative services, as well as hotel development, and we provide the technology connectivity that allows independent hotels to be bookable to tour operators and travel agents and online travel agents. Basically, if you’re an independent hotel and you have a distinctive design concept and brand experience vision, then we’re kind of a one-stop-shop for you.

Walk us through a typical day in your life: what does your schedule look like?

What I’m responsible for, essentially, is everything that touches individuals. My goal is to standardize the way our brand is communicated, so that customers have the same experience with the whether they’re online, on social media or calling our reservation center. On a daily basis, I usually start off by reading the 50 to 75 sites that I check everyday — blogs, news portals or other random places on the internet. I get a daily brief of what’s going on in the hotel industry, but also in the related industries, like fashion, design, architecture, popular culture, celebrity, and technology. They’re all intertwined in what we do on a daily basis. I’m usually doing this for about an hour, and from there, I’ll pick content for our blog, then the day usually progresses very randomly; I could be involved in projects that are offline-focused, things that deal with our loyalty club, for example, and because the website falls within the department, I’m involved in alot of the technical development, and the ongoing improvement and optimization of our website. We’re also brainstorming alot of promotions, alot of hooks to get people interested in our hotels and our brands.

Why did you start the blog? Did you have specific goals?

When we started the blog two and a half years ago, it was really a promotional tool for an event that we have, the “Future Forum”, which is where the name “Future Blog” comes from. The Future Forum, which actually just took place two weeks ago in Berlin, is our semi-annual symposium. We bring together people from the hotel industry, and mix them with designers, interior designers, architects, and trend forecasters — this interesting mix of people — and listen to lectures, attend networking events, and see what comes out of it. So, to go back, the blog was created to highlight some of the key areas that we’re going to be discussing in the event and, naturally, it developed a following in the months leading up to the event. From there, we just let it grow organically.

What is a “lifestyle blog” and why is it important?

The term “lifestyle” is really ambiguous because people are always using it, but can’t necessarily pinpoint what it means. For me, when I say that we strive to be a lifestyle brand, the ultimate goal is that people will be able to experience the brand even when they’re not experiencing our product, per se. In that same vein, just because they’re looking at the Future Blog, doesn’t mean that they need to be looking specifically at a hotel product, but by virtue of being there, they should get an idea of what our brand stands for and represents. For us it’s pretty natural; the interests that overlap are reflective of what you’d call the cultural movement, the way that it’s headed. We’re saying, “You know what? This is all so interesting for us; this is interesting for our hotel owners, and by reading this, you can get an idea of what kind of company we are, who we work with, what we do, what we dress like, you know? What we like to do in our free time, and hopefully, the general mood gets across.

Do you know who your readers are? How do you know what they want to read on your blog?

Of course, we do analysis online using Google Analytics and other free social media tools to see which subject matter gets the most traction, but besides that, it has to do with response, really. Sometimes people will send me an email saying they particularly enjoyed something, and they want more information. Sometimes, this will spark conversation with a potential partner that said “thanks for linking to us”, or “Thanks for posting something about us, why don’t we have a conversation and see what we might be able to do together”, so it’s really dynamic, but it’s also a combination of pinpointing and seeing who’s responding, what are they saying, and having an open ear to feedback.

What does your blogging process look like?

I don’t have an editorial calendar, per se. I hadn’t identified any specific items that I wanted to cover with the World Cup for example, but daily you’re inundated with interesting factoids and news that, naturally, you’re gonna want to post online. I go through them for maybe an hour, hour and a half, and I’m just bookmarking the ones that I think are interesting or worthy, then I’ll do another run through, and see, okay, what’s the angle? Is this just interesting to me? Or is it something that’s going to be interesting to our readers as well? And the third element, which is very important, but not always present, is … is there a link to Design Hotels? I guess you would say I’m a “corporate blogger”; I don’t know if that’s the correct term, but I’m sort of representing a brand. It’s not necessary that every single thing is linked back to a profit goal, but when you can, it certainly helps. So that’s kind of the ultimate criteria.

Where do you get inspiration: which sources do you monitor? How do you keep track of what’s happening?

I know that most people use a reader, but I prefer to go to the sites individually; I have them all bookmarked. The reason is, because, that’s how I’ve found most of the other ones, by reading comments, and looking at other blogs, blogrolls, which you wouldn’t be exposed to by just using a Reader, necessarily. And I like to see the environment, where they’re posting, and try to build, if I can, a little bit better relationship with the other blogs, which has been pretty successful with quite a few of them. It’s a little bit more time consuming, but around 50-75 is manageable. If you get more than that, there’s probably a critical point where you would need to use a reader.

What were the big challenges you faced along the way?

Well, I think when I was starting, I was really relying on organic growth, just directly to the site, in order to expand the audience, but since then, the development of tools to increase traffic — some good, some not so good — have really matured, so using these and figuring out which ones work for us, I mean, there was a time when we were very reliant on Stumble Upon to get to the next level, and on the one hand it’s great that people are assembling your sites, but in the end, you get alot of really unqualified traffic, and, as we’re not trying to sell ads, and we’re not trying to monetize the space necessarily, I mean, it doesn’t take long to say “I like it”; after a while we stopped using Stumble Upon.

What did you wish you knew starting out?

I think really staying on top of the content distribution technology is important, but also, really trying to get into a rhythm, I mean, in the blogs that are not affiliated with Design Hotels, I had the same problems where I would be very active, then not feel like I’d found anything blog-worthy, so it would go, maybe, a week… and then, traffic would be down, and… it just takes a while, and people are often frustrated after a few months because they wanna see this big, steady increase, and then you kind of plateau at a certain point, but I think it’s just a matter of being persistent, and trying to create a standard. You don’t wanna say “standardize”; I guess that has a negative connotation, but a… consistent voice, and a consistent volume of posting, and a reliability in a way that you’re gonna get something interesting every time. So, really focusing on the content, and less on the technology, even though I said you need to stay current, but just because you have a bunch of funny widgets on your site, that isn’t really going to mean anything in the long term. If you have great content, people are going to return for that reason. You can see that on the top blogs; you can see that on Drudge Report, for example, doesn’t have anything fancy, and, I don’t know how many hits they have, but tens of millions of people, so, I think the key is really the content.

How do you attract new readers to the site?

We don’t like to put pressure on having an exact volume of traffic on the blog, which I think gives us a little bit of liberty to experiment a little bit, and also use those tools how they’re designed to be used. On Facebook, we tease the blog, and force people to come back to the Future Blog in order to boot traffic, which is good in a way, but at the same time, I think that, the fact we have it posted as a note, which means that you can access the entire blog post on Facebook without actually having to leave the Facebook environment, that is the purpose of spreading the brand values and focusing on interaction, rather than looking for an easy way to boost traffic. Twitter, on the other hand, it’s not easy to post alot of content in 140 characters. It’s really more about “seeding”, seeding around and with the ultimate goal of getting more traffic. But I think as it gets more saturated, and alot of people spamming on Twitter, it’s less and less effective.

Can you explain how to build mutually beneficial relationships with other bloggers?

There’s no system, but there are three ways — two of them you mentioned — definitely making comments is good, and emailing them can be good. Of course, sometimes I’m emailing them because I want them to cover our topics, as well. It’s always a great way to reach out. The third way is to repost some of the things that they’re posting. So for example, one of my favorite sources is the New York Times blog called “The Moment”, which is the blog of T Magazine, their style magazine. They’re producing alot of really interesting content. Through reposting occasionally, they’ve come to see us not only as a fan, a supporter, and an informal friend-partner, but also a source of traffic. I think that doing that is a good way to create goodwill, and also, eventually, it’s full-cycle. You’ll get some feedback from them occasionally, and especially for up-and-coming bloggers, that might be doing it professionally, but they’re not really really really getting tons of traffic, they’re quite keen to, not just swap links, but swap content at times.

So would it be safe to say that the best way to get on a blogger’s radar is to repost some of their material with a link back to the site?

Yeah, exactly, and it’s important to be very transparent. I mean, not that you’re plagiarizing, but always giving credit where credit is due. I don’t think anyone will ever have a problem with another blog saying, “look at this great content I found from ‘xyz’”, and linking back to them.

Do you cross-promote with social media or email?

Yes, I would say that, definitely, Facebook and Twitter are reliable sources — not the bulk — but, and this is maybe not the answer you’re looking for, alot of our traffic comes from Google Image Search. So, naming and tagging these images in the right way can be very valuable for getting traffic, but also reaching out to some of the indirect or directly related industries, so, on our blogroll for example, we have informal friendships, or partnerships, with all of these blogs; some more than others. This is one of the ways that we kind of get ongoing traffic. That’s probably the best way to start.

What was your most popular post?

People really like products. Yesterday, I posted something really short about a bicycle rack by a designer in San Francisco, and got two emails from people asking where they could buy it. The blog is fed on to our Facebook page, another good way to see what people are responding to. Beyond that, I don’t want to say it’s “random”, but people respond to different things. Just looking at our Facebook group, we have a huge population of people from Portugal, so if I ever post anything about Portugal, or Brazil, they’re freaking out and commenting on it, and very proud to see their country represented in the blog.

What is the most common mistake new bloggers make?

I would say, and this is something that I also did, just not creating this rhythm; not consistently updating the blog, making new posts, and maybe posting really intensively for a week, putting alot of really great content out there, and then just sitting on it and not following up.

What’s your biggest tip for writing a successful blog?

In alot of cases, you get one opportunity for people to come to your site, and if they like it, they’re gonna come back, and if you don’t have anything new, it’s possible that they’re not gonna come back again. But, as long as you keep putting new stuff up there, I think that you’ll have a chance to build loyalty among your readers.

Thanks for your insights, Jeremy!

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We hear a lot about social media as a two-way conversation, but how do you encourage these conversations? What type of questions get people talking?

Let’s look at some popular brands on Facebook to see how they generated conversation:

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf used a fun contest to encourage discussion and engage their fans.

Zipcar asks a question that’s very relevant to their target audience: people who need a car for day trips. A variation of this would be perfect market research material.

Virgin America does this subtle research even better – they’re gathering lots of information around a contest with an attractive prize.

Hard Rock Hotel asks a question that fits their customer culture. Every once and a while, you just need something fun.

Hilton does an announcement in a way that draws in baseball and entertainment sub-communities: broadening its appeal beyond a press release.

Ritz-Carlton does something I want more of on Facebook: Sharing a story around something truly different.

What do these updates have in common?

What are the common themes running through each of these questions?

Not many, but you can see each was designed to get people talking. The author needs input – they want to get a discussion going.

Contrast that with all the pages you see that only include the company talking about itself. Simply pushing out information without caring if anyone responds.

Intentionally write your updates to include your fans, and see what happens!

Let me ask you this: What questions do you notice generate the most discussion?

If you’re doing any sort of online publishing – like blogging – it’s a smart idea to develop an editorial calendar. This gives some structure to your content mix, and provides consistency for your readers.

Here are some basics to keep in mind when creating your editorial calendar:

1. Develop a system that works for you. An editorial calendar can be made using a spreadsheet, word processor, online scheduling tool – or even just a paper notebook. Use whatever you feel most comfortable with. The goal is to make your notes coherent and organized.
2. Put in some detail. Format the calendar with different colors or sections for each topic category as necessary. Although you don’t need to include details for each of your posts at the start, include enough information to get you started writing.
3. Schedule enough time for peripheral items, such as interviews or research. They should be included in your editorial calendar as well. That way, you can spot potential conflicts and reorganize so they don’t get in the way of releasing your content on time.
4. Plan ahead. Creating your editorial calendar at least a month in advance gives you time to make any changes or switch around scheduled posts as needed.
5. Mark important dates and work towards them. Setting goals and deadlines ensures sure you “ship” on time.

Andy Wibbles shares a good Excel calendar template on his blog. And check out this performancing.com post. It discusses organizational strategies, niche calendars, and some cool web-based options.

The steps I use to plan my editorial calendar

Right now I’m working with Katie to formalize this system, but our new editorial calendar will probably build off this workflow I’ve used for the past 8 years:

1. Brainstorm the mix of content I want to include.
2. Think about the frequency of each content type. (I might do one phone interview per week, but only one case study each month.)
3. Talk with my interview guests to schedule their availability
4. Put this all together into a Google doc, with the post title for each day (usually over the next 30 days)

A tip I’ve learned: leave an opening each week for breaking news or stories that will become irrelevant if they’re not published immediately.

The structure an editorial calendar provides is good, but you need to build flexibility into this structure.

I’d like to hear your thoughts: do you use an editorial calendar? If so, what does it look like?