Tag Archives: Social Media

10 things outsourcing companies do wrong on social media

June 20, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Outsourcing companies do not have a very good presence on social media. That is the first thing wrong. But, when they do, they publish a lot of the wrong type of content. Let’s go into detail.

1. Most outsourcing companies don’t use social media, or don’t use it enough.

2. Many outsourcing companies publish advertising content about themselves. This is counterproductive on social media.

3. Good social media involves publishing industry relevant articles that do NOT try to sell anything. You captivate your audience with quality content that informs and perhaps entertains.

4. About us type information is popular on social media. Photos of what your office did on Diwali or Christmas help. Or show a photo of you all having a communal meal or having a birthday party wearing funny hats.

5. Dry factual information about the industry might not be popular. It is common for outsourcing blogs to focus on which company merged with what other company or bought an office from some other company. The readership for this boring content is not that good. Read your stats to see what type of content is popular with your readers.

6. Not looking at your stats as I mentioned in the last point is suicide. If you don’t know what people enjoyed reading, how will you know what to write about next time?

7. Not interacting is a huge mistake. Social Media is all about interacting. If people ask a question on social media, get back to them right away — every time.

8. Outsource your social media. If you are an outsourcing company, you might think that people outsource to you. But, you might need to outsource to someone else as well. Social media requires skill and familiarity. If you can’t, hire someone who does.

9. Write more blog entries. If your blog doesn’t exist or has very few posts, you need to write blog entries regularly. I spent hours every month writing and writing. The result is that my blog gets excellent traffic every month.

10. Follow a lot on social media. You can’t grow your presence without following people. So, follow people who are relevant to your industry.

That’s all for now. I wish you luck with social media.

You might also like:

Pimp my Tweet — a BPO company that specializes in Twitter
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/09/16/pimp-my-tweet-a-bpo-company-specializing-in-twitter/

18 ways to boost your social media marketing in 10 minutes a day
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/05/05/18-ways-to-boost-your-social-media-marketing-in-10-minutes-day/

How to choose which posts to share on Social Media & how often?

April 8, 2016 by admin
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

We all seem to use social media, yet so many of us use it so poorly. Do you share posts that have a nice title? Or should you stick to those that have a nice photo in their Twitter roll. What about the actual content of the article? I say, that you should use a process, and let me outline the process.

1. I keep lists of all of my favorite accounts on Twitter. You can do the same for Facebook. Every day I identify a handful or two of the best posts. Then, I compare those posts to each other and pick the best four or so posts to see which one I think appeals most to my audience.

2. I scan the article
Posting articles that you haven’t read is a poor idea. There are many popular blogs out there that publish a lot of fluff, and then once in a while they have useful content. You don’t need to spend ten minutes reading every word of the article. Just skim through it and make sure it looks substantial and interesting.

3. Give weight to the photo
If you are going to share someone else’s tweet, the quality of the photo in the tweet actually matters a lot. Even if your share doesn’t get reshared, a pretty picture makes your Twitter roll look better and you will get more followers — proven fact! So, the article needs to be good, and so does the photo. They should get the same quality score from you of an A or a B+, otherwise don’t bother cluttering up your feed.

4. The title actually matters too.
A great post with a boring title will not get circulated as well. Ann Handley is a marketing expert and claims that you should spend as much time perfecting your titles as you do with the entire blog post. Ann’s team might spend hours on a post, and hours deciding upon the perfect title. They do a bang up job, and so should you when choosing which titles other people wrote to share.

5. Should you tweet the post from your account?
It is easier to click the retweet button. However, Twitter will give you more credit and you will get a lot more shares if you write your own innovative title for the article and send it out again. If you don’t have a stock of excellent photos, you might lack there. But, on Twitter photos are less critical than on Facebook and many other mediums. If the original photo wasn’t that good, consider tweeting from your own account. If you can write a better title, then tweet from your own account. If you are in a hurry, then just click the share or retweet button.

6. Remove dead leaves
If posts you posted or shared don’t do well, I would remove them as they clutter your feed. Social media is about trial and error. Get rid of the errors!

That’s all for now.
But, keep in mind that you should not tweet or reshare a total of more than 30-40 times per day on Twitter if you want your account to grow. So choose what to share with care and flare!

99 ways to die in social media — choose one!

January 5, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It sounds like the name of a movie! How exciting. I can picture one social media manager with a gun and another about to die. But, it doesn’t really work like that, does it? There are many ways to sabotage yourself in social media. People do it all the time. The question is, what are we doing to ruin ourselves, and how do we do it? How can we stop doing it? Here is my list of ways to ruin your social presence on the internet.

1. Not posting regularly
If you post five things at the same time and then do not post for a few days, your audience will not grow or be engaged properly. Use an auto-posting software system so that you can post on a regular basis. You might post every four hours, or only during peak hours of engagement which might be during the day. Or you could post twice per hour twenty-four hours a day to attract an interactional crowd.

2. Posting too much
If you post too much, you are spamming your audience. Each social media platform is different. On Twitter I would not post more than 40 posts per day, and 20 is much more ideal. On Facebook I would not exceed 10 posts per day. LinkedIn and Google plus I would do only 5 per day.

3. Posting content your audience doesn’t like
I test my content out before posting it. The first time I post something, it the crowd doesn’t like it, I’ll remove it after an hour or so. If I retweet something, if the crowd doesn’t favorite it at least once, I’ll get rid of it. Post stuff your audience likes — or perish!

4. Monotony kills
If you post the same content or the same kind of content too much, your audience will get bored. Yes, focus on your core industry specific niche, but also have related content from semi-focused specialties. If you specialize in widgets, you can post about the economy, and manufacturing of other related projects as well, plus news and some pretty photos.

5. Not following people
If you don’t follow enough people on social media, your audience will never grow to critical mass. You need to follow as many relevant people as you can.

6. Now following people back
The easiest way to experience slow growth on social media is to fail to follow people back who follow you. They will unfollow you if you don’t follow them.

7. Focusing on too many networks
It is best to focus on a single social media network for your business. I would devote your social media time 50% on blogging, 40% on your primary social media platform and divide the other 10% on all the other networks combined. If one of your lesser focuses starts panning out, you can always change your focus. Social media is always changing, so your primary network today might no longer be benefitting you in a few years.

8. Not having good content
If you have a blog, the number of posts you have is not a critical number. What matters is how many really popular posts you have. If your blog has 2000 posts and 50 of them are super popular, then you can promote those posts regularly on your various social channels and get a ton of traffic.

9. Following the wrong sub-groups (profiles) of people
If you follow people who are relevant to your industry, but from a sub-group that doesn’t interact much, you lose. I attract many people who call themselves “entrepreneurs.” I think the term represents people who lack a day job more than people who run their own business. Entrepreneurs did not share my posts much at all. However, small businesses that were not relevant to my industry were sharing my content as I run a business blog and they are businesses. CEO’s and HR people also shared my contents. Keep track of who is favoriting and sharing and then profile them like they do on the TV show Criminal Minds. I guess being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean as much as I feel it should mean.

10. Asthetic appeal
It is hard to be informative, interactive and also good looking. Publishing good looking photos on your feed is easy. They might not get shared much. However, you will attract more followers (a lot more) if you have breathtaking photos between your posts. Track your progress each way. If you follow 500 people per day, post just tweets for two days, and then publish tweets and amazing photos mixed together for another two days and see how many more followers you got. Please note that weekend traffic is very different from traffic Monday to Friday so do your experiment starting on a Monday.

11. Regurgitate the right amount
Some people publish the same stuff over and over again. That could be a mistake if that is all you do. Others realize that popular content from the past should be shared again, but mixed in with other stuff. The key is to figure out when your crowd is absolutely tired of your old material and phase it out. I’ll favorite my own stuff that gets results. When I post the contents again, I unfavorite it, and then favorite all over again if it did well. That way if it doesn’t do well the 3rd or 7th time around, it will be dropped permanently from the favorite list. This system gets me a lot of traffic since people like my popular posts!

12. Failing to have lists
Lists help me organize posts from my absolute favorite sources. I retweet from my favorite sources regularly. But, I also mix in retweets from sources that are unknown to me if I see something hot. Many people are not that organized. But, Twitter allows you to have lists — so use that function.

13. Failing to interact
Interacting doesn’t work well on my Twitter profile, but the pros say you need to grow your following by interacting. If your crowd likes to mingle, ask them questions or respond to their posts. Get to know them. It is easier in a niche business. But, regardless, try it and see what happens and try different approaches.

14. Posting at the wrong time of day
In my industry, posting at night is fine, but posting on the weekend gets you ignored. For my other Twitter, daytime is the right time and after 4pm is not optimal at all. Find out when your crowd responds most and focus on that window of time.

15. Foreign languages?
If you are multi-lingual, it might be better to pick a language and stick to it. If I see posts in Spanish or Arabic, I am tempted to un-follow such a person as I am weak in both of those languages. I stick to English. You might be better off having two profiles — one for English, and one for Arabic for example.

16. Putting too many followers on a list
If you have lists, but put 4000 followers on a list — you’ve defeated the reason for having a list. Lists are to focus only on specific profiles that deliver high quality focused results. How can you be focused if there are 4000 people on a list? My biggest list has 52 people, and they are all very focused. I have other lists with only about 10 to 12 accounts. Stay focused my friends.

17. Commenting too much
When people see your profile for the first time it is often in a pop up window which shows commentary. If you make a dumb comment on someone else’s post, your new prospects will not follow you. Your commentary needs to be attractive to a stranger as well as to the person who you are commenting to — as long as it is at the top of your feed. If it is buried then it doesn’t matter. If you do comment, post some good material after and spread your comments out.

18. Not sticking to it
The biggest mistake you can make on social media is giving up, or having lapses. If you want to grow big, you have to keep at it. Make it a priority or do it on the side. But, don’t half do social media. Social media needs to be done either 90 minutes a day or 5 minutes a day. Anything in between will waste too much of your time without getting you the right long term results.

19. Photos help get you more attention
If you tweet just text, you get less attention than posting with photos. Picking dull photos won’t help much either. But, if you pick very relevant high quality photos, your account could really grow — so try it. Experiment with different photos and see what happens.

20-99. Sorry, that I don’t have any more ways to die on social media. But, you can see what mistakes you make and learn from them. You can read otherpeople’s recommendations as well.

How to be as successful as Scott Eddy on Twitter & get 500,000+ followers

December 1, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

We all want to be huge on Twitter, yet so few of us get anywhere. I notice that the click ratio for my tweets is never that great even if the article is amazing. So, to get good clicks from links on your Twitter account you need a really large Account. Last time I checked, Scott Eddy had more than 671,000 followers. I started following him when he had only about 440,000 followers which was only two years back. I have six Twitter accounts myself. I had two for Notary, two for Outsourcing & Marketing, an acupuncture twitter and one for Travel. I found Scott Eddy while searching for interesting travel tweets. In any case, to get big on Twitter you need to have several ingredients in place.

1. Follow 1000 people per day.
In real life, it is hard to follow 1000 people per day. But, if you can identify which type of targetted profiles will be most likely to follow you back or even share your content, you will get a lot for your following time. You need to unfollow those 1000 after three or more days ideally. When your Twitter account is small, it might not be so easy to do this. But, as you grow, you can easily follow a 1000 and then scroll down 1000 deep in the people you follow to delete the old ones you have been following for 72 hours or whatever you deem the correct amount of time is.

2. Interact
Successful people on Twitter always make a habit of answering people’s questions. They often retweet their fans if their fans have something tweet-worthy as well.

3. Follow people back
I made the mistake for years of not following everyone back. Most people will dump you if you don’t follow them back. It’s hard to grow a huge following if 70% of your followers dump you. It takes twenty seconds a day to follow people back.

4. Create a Persona
If people get to know you via your Twitter profile and blog, they will engage with you better. Making your tweets more personal, and having photos of what you do, where you go, and you yourself wins the game. My Notary blog helps people to get to know me. The result is that it is a lot easier to sell them courses, advertising and more since they feel they already know me. Scott does exactly this as he has great photos and blogs of all his travel as well as retweeting really great content created by others.

5. Post a diversity of content
Quality is king. If you post poor quality content, your followers won’t come to your profile regularly. However, diversity counts too. Post a few really amazing quotes, links to great blog entries from others, as well as your own personal content.

6. Use analytics to see what your audience likes
Each audience is its own animal. You need to study your audience to see what they like. As you find what they like, you can spend your time writing blogs that cater to their interests. On the other hand, if you write about what you think is fascinating, that enthusiasm could become contagious.

7. Post, Post, Post
Successful people on Twitter post around the clock. That way if you visit their profile regularly, you will always find new content. Nothing is more fun that finding new content from your favorite account. Additionally, you can reach people who are on different schedules if you tweet at all hours of the day or night. If you only tweet in the afternoon, you will never reach particular people!

8. Amazing photos
I rarely use photos on my social media, but I should. I do on my more critical paid promotions. But, amazing photos can draw in the crowds in social media.

9. Lists and keeping organized
Some people attract others by having amazing lists that they created. I use lists to follow others. I see that other people will have lists of thousands of followers. To me that is wasteful. I want my lists to be focused so I can only see tweets from people who I want to see tweets from. Lists allow you to organize tweets in many creative ways. The minute I started using lists, my growth rate was immediately enhanced.

10. How come nobody said that before.
Scott Eddy is the master of having quotes so good, yet so unique that I’m always saying, “How come nobody said that before?” I asked him if he made them up or found them. He said a little of both. Here are some examples:

“There should be a calorie refund for things that didn’t taste as good as you expected”
“Getting results from other people is one of the hardest things an #entrepreneur has to do #startup.”
“Friendship is so weird…you just pick a human you’ve met and you’re like “yep I like this one” and you just do stuff with them.”
“Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes!!”

11. Combining travel, social media and wine
Some social media profiles are too focused while others are about a particular person’s life and have no theme. Scott Eddy has a lot of travel related content, regular commentary on wine, as well as social media dn business tips with an entrepreneurial twist. I find that his combination of elements makes his profile one that I want to go back to regularly as I share all of his interests. I actually do something similar with my main social media profile. I combine general business, outsourcing social media, programming, and call center themes all into one profile.

12. Keep doing it
There is a lot more to know about Twitter than what I just described. But, if you put a lot of time into your profile and keep it going over years, you can accumulate hundreds of thousands of followers. My growth rate on twitter is exponential, and not constant. The more I have, the easier it is to grow. I believe this is because Twitter introduces more people to me the larger I become

Facebook knows you better than your mama. But, how well do you know your customers?

October 3, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Facebook knows you better than your mama knows you.
Don’t you be talking about my mama!

But seriously, how well do you know your customers?
Facebook knows who your friends are, where you went to school, who your parents are, what you like to read, your interests, and who your email provider is. Most of my old friends who came back to me found me on Facebook. There is no other way to find people these days now that we are all over the place. Thank God for Facebook. Personally, I feel there should be a national database of people that you can look up based on name, home town, or other things. But, in any case, the important thing Facebook knows is what you like. If a business knows your habits and what you like, they can cater to your needs.

In Facebook’s case, they can offer you friends who have similar likes and interest, articles that will please you, and maybe even products. Big businesses sometimes get it. They understand that knowledge is key. But, small businesses don’t bother understanding their clients. In the old days when people used to know each other, they knew their clients needs from knowing them. But, in this hi-tech age, you don’t ever see anyone. So, you get to know people by studying data. See what they click on, and what they like. You can survey them too, but what they say they like and what they click on may not match up as much as you think.

As a BPO or small business owner, you can keep database records of your client’s habits, wishlists, and other information about them. What information you keep is up to you, and your database will evolve over time. Yes it is expensive to maintain a database and dealing with the programmers is no easy task either. But, without knowing something about your clients and being able to segment them, you will not know how to please them.

SHELLY: Would you like your data entry done within 72 hours like you did last time, or would you prefer the two week economy package.

RAMESH: Oh, you kept records on how I purchased last time. I don’t even remember myself. Wow! You must be a very attentive company.

SHELLY: Well, we try. And next time you come by, did you want two glasses of masala chai with two lumps of sugar, or do you want to try a new energy drink called zap?

RAMESH: You even remember how many lumps of sugar I take? Usually I take one, but your chai was extra robust so I took too. I’ll do chai, but I’ll have a sip or zap.

SHELLY: Do you want a morning appointment like last time?

RAMESH: This time let’s do 3pm as my wife needs me to help her in the morning.

SHELLY: Oh yes, Amrita. Her Master’s degree program ended a week ago. Tell her I give her my congratulations.

RAMESH: I am getting my own Master’s degree just listening to all the things you know about me. Now, what is my online banking password?

SHELLY: Why, did you forget?

RAMESH: No, I’m just testing you.

SHELLY: It is 1811516.

RAMESH: I”m just kidding I don’t use online banking.

SHELLY: I know. I was just pulling your leg.

RAMESH: Ah-ha! Got you. I just had it amputated…. Just kidding.

SHELLY: You are too much. See you at 3pm. Parking is in the rear. We’ll assign you a spot that says, “Parking for Ramesh(es) ONLY”

How to use the right keywords in your blog titles that lead to instant popularity

September 17, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Using the right keywords is like having a magic key that opens the door to winning over the hearts of the readers in the blogosphere.

I have written a few thousand blog articles in my career. I’m by no means a professional writer or anything close to it. But, I spend a lot of time looking at google analytics. I use Google analytics, and also try to figure out what works in the Twittersphere as well as the Blogosphere. I used to think that writing interesting articles that were akin to the interests of your audience was the secret. I was wrong! Yes, you need to understand your audience and what your audience responds to, but keywords make all the difference.

Positive Keywords
The guy at the coffee shop in my neighborhood is so interesting. I was talking to him about keywords today. We must have talked about over a hundred topics so far since I’ve known him. I said that the word “fail” doesn’t work with my crowd. He said that the under 18 crowd loves the word fail. They’re only interested in watching people screw up, or fall off their skateboard. But, my audience doesn’t respond well to this word. I won’t get retweeted, and people won’t click on my blog. If I use fail — I fail. On the other hand, if I use the tag #failure on Twitter in a blog about #success, that seems to be okay assuming it is accompanied by some more positive tags too. In short, I learned that my crowd liked words like millionaire, CEO, success, expand, grow, best, good, etc.

How To Themes
In addition to being perpetually positive, my crowd loves nothing more than how to blogs. They run businesses (or want to) and want to know how I think they should create and grow their business. If I have one hundred different marketing techniques, they will read each one if I phrase the title correctly. The minute I’m just giving “good advice” nobody wants it, but if there is a “how to” in the title — it gets read. How to motivate, fixing mistakes and finding solutions to particular problems are blog title fragments that almost guarantee success.

Interesting Content
If every blog article you wrote started with “how to,” I think that people might get bored. But, spicing up your blog with some really interesting and unusual content is great too. Not all of us can think of zany ideas, but I have thought of a few. I wrote a piece about what it would be like if classically trained musicians ran IT companies in India. I wrote another about what it would be like to have your office in the Himalayas. Ideas come when they come, but my audience eats up these interesting ideas. If you have some cool rule of thumb that is easy to remember, that will win over readers too. I wrote a piece about the 2 minute contact rule. It was easy to understand the concept, plus it was catchy.

Pairing Strategies
Using language in a fun way wins over readers too. I wrote a piece called:
The pen is mightier than the sword; But, is flogging mightier than blogging?
The title caught on right away, especially after the drama in Saudi Arabia where a blogger disrespected Islam and was going to get a whooping. I wrote another title called: Good Sign; Bad Sign — what to look for in newly hired workers. Once again another pairing strategy that caught everyone’s eyes.

Relatable Content
If you write a blog article and the readers say, “You’re preaching to the choir!” Then, you have got the right idea. People love to read about someone else having the same problem that they have. If you write about stress to an audience of stressed out maniacs, they’ll love you for it. If you write about job training where your readers are younger workers who need training, they will relate right away. Sometimes I write about my personal experience and start the article with the word “diary.” This is a strategy that works well too.

What Doesn’t Work?
Writing about negative concepts, or things the audience doesn’t care about like politics, the economy, etc. (on my blog — your audience might love those topics.) If your articles are too analytical, that narrows down the audience who care to think that intricately. Additionally, if you write about boring and nagging topics, only dentists and grammar teachers will want to read it. Sometimes ideas that are too goofy backfire too. Humor as a rule is good in writing, but if you use it in a way your audience doesn’t like, then you wasted a good joke on a bad audience!

Pimp my Tweet – a BPO company specializing in Twitter

September 16, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I remember the MTV show long time ago called, Pimp My Ride. But, how come there is no agency that can help give tweets a makeover? Most people write boring tweets that could stand a lot of improvement. There are after all 140 characters and endless tag variations to work with. With all of this flexibility, why is it that most people can’t tweet? Even the biggest profiles that I follow that have over a million followers write very dull tweets. They tweet the title of their blog instead of working some magic out of it most of the time. And when they do rephrase the tweet based on some juicy internal content, it still isn’t all that.

Here is some sales literature from a fictional India based social media BPO company.

Pimp My Tweet BPO Pvt. Ltd.

Tired of the same old lame-ass tweets?
It’s time to put some style in your Twitter handle.
Here is what our experts recommend!

If the tweet don’t flow — then it must go
If the tweet ain’t hype, you must retype
If the link don’t fit, you must find wit
If you put your tag in the wrong spot—good job – Not!

For the dopest, phattest tweets around, come to Pimp My Tweet BPO.

(ring, ring)

SUJATA: Thank you for calling Pimp My Tweet BPO, this is Sujata, how may I help you?

CLIENT: Yes, my Tweets are quite boring actually. I was hoping that you could help.

SUJATA: Yes, we can help jazz up your tweets. Let me take a look…. (pause) Oh, I see the problem.

CLIENT: Were you able to take a look at my work?

SUJATA: Yes. It is not (pause) bad… But, it is too straight. You just tweet straight facts and basic sentences. You need to put some play in yo jive.

CLIENT: Wait a second. You are located in Bangalore, and you know 1970’s Bronx street slang?

SUJATA: Well, it’s actually a problem you see. If aunty ever finds out I work for a company whose title includes the name pimp, I’m in huge trouble. I have rehearsed what I’m going to tell her if there is a problem. It is a typo, and it was supposed to be “Pin My Tweet” — on Pinterest, you know. Aunty is used to typos, they make a lot of them where she works.

CLIENT: Got it. I know how that is. I was at a hamburger spot in Chennai called Mary Brown, and they spelled Mary like Marry which means to have a wedding, etc., if it has two r’s. Comical actually.

SUJATA: You sound like a character. Which makes you 139 short of a full tweet. Well Anyway, you basically need to put some strut to get out of your rut. Do some jive to get out of your hive, and most of all — don’t tag outside your territory, or that could cause a turf war.

CLIENT: Oh, you mean graffiti? Well, the internet isn’t like that.

SUJATA: I know that, but we are trying to appeal to New York Street sensibilities. Our clients grew up on the streets of New York. Generally on more affluent streets if they can afford us, but nonetheless they would be familiar with street culture.

CLIENT: The other companies can barely function in English, but you know our slang — at least the antiquated slang.

SUJATA: We aim(s) to please! And we’ll make your dull Twitter handle into the hippest, coolest, dopest account in Twitter history. Just give us a chance. We offer samples of our work for a low introductory offer. After that we have a contract for a monthly arrangement. 60 tweet revisions per month for one low price of rps3000 / month which is only about $60. And we have a viral surcharge. If any of our tweets go viral, we expect a generous tip.

CLIENT: You’ll get tips, referrals and more if you help me go viral. Thanks a bunch. I look forward to you guys pimping my tweets. Just don’t get up on my honeys.

SUJATA: Oh, no we wouldn’t think of it. And one more thing.

CLIENT: Yes

SUJATA: If you meet aunty on any subsequent trips to Chennai, please don’t mention that I work here. Let’s keep it between you and me. Can you dig it?

CLIENT: Yes, I dig.

Never hire a blogger to help you blog; Hire industry relevant people

August 31, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Semi-Popular, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

These days more and more of us own or write for blogs. There are also hundreds of social media “experts” and bloggers advertising their services on freelance sites hoping to bag their next gig. The question is, which one of them do you hire, and why? I tried negotiating with many bloggers, and the results were horrible. Not only did most of them lack any formal writing background, but they wanted commitments for large amounts of money when I had no indication that they would do good work.

The “What ifs” of hiring a blogger
What if their work wasn’t popular? What if the blogger couldn’t come up with ideas that were any good (none of them could by the way.) What if they weren’t reliable in their work? What if it took too much time to prep them before they could produce their first piece? Can I get a sample? None of the bloggers wanted to invest even five minutes in my cause to give me a few samples unless I would pay them for it. Such a stingy unfriendly attitude! The result was that I didn’t hire even one of these bloggers. I hired a comedy writer instead. He had a strong professional writing background, was really funny, friendly, and appealed to some (but not all) of my audiences! But, what “writers” captivated my audience the best? You’ll never guess.

The disgruntled call center agent
You will never guess where one of my most popular outsourcing blogs came from. It came from a frustrated call center rep. His writing was filled with grammatical mistakes, but it didn’t matter. First of all, my audience is not so particular about nitpicky things. Secondly, I was able to do a cleanup of his work in two minutes. The bigger issue was, the minute I laid eyes on his work I loved it. He captured seven different points of frustration that a call center worker could have and explained them perfectly in a way that everyone could relate to. You could feel his frustration and anguish in every paragraph. I knew the crowd would love it, and they did.

The frustrated call center manager
Two years ago I interviewed this very frustrated Indian guy. He was down on India and down on the entire Indian call center industry. He only would work for Filipino, US, or Central American outfits. After dealing with a hundred or so of India’s “finest” call centers myself, I began to see why he felt the way he did. But, he gave me fifteen ideas for articles to write about. He was an expert at call center metrics, call center marketing, and more. So, by talking to him for 45 minutes, he filled my head with exactly what people wanted to read about. No blogger could do that!

The upset Notary Public
We also run a Notary blog. I create most of the articles myself. We write about Notary marketing, technical & legal issues, Notary comedy and drama articles, and more. We keep it diverse so our audience won’t get bored. My articles are generally popular. But, the other guy who writes popular articles for me is not a blogger — he’s just another Notary. He happens to be smarter, and a lot better organized (not to mention experienced) than the other Notaries. But, he is not a professional writer. He is just a Notary who happens to be a good writer. He also comes up with winning ideas that our readers enjoy reading about.

So, where do I look for a writer?
In the real world, the guy most suited to writing your articles might not have the background necessary to get industry specific content to fill the article. You really need a team. You need someone who can pick great topics, someone who can get relevant information, and someone who can polish your writing work. Sometimes you can do it all yourself, while other times you need help. Sometimes a good social media agency or social media company is the best resource, but not if they hire incompetent or uncooperative employees.

Find people who work in the industry you are writing about to help you. You might have to look hard to find cooperative people, but they are out there. Even if you don’t “need” them, use them anyway to create a diversity of points of view in your blog. Nothing is more interesting than a blog with multiple writers — all of whom have unique and wonderful writing styles and perspectives!

You might also like:

Why you should hire a Comedian instead of a CEO to help you co-blog
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/13/why-you-should-hire-a-comedian-instead-of-a-ceo-to-co-blog/

10 quick factors that differentiate a good blog from a bad one
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/03/10-quick-factors-that-differentiate-a-good-blog-entry-from-a-bad-one/

Want to be popular at blogging? Write how-to blogs!
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Hitting the 10,000 mark on Twitter; Halfway up Mt. Twitterest!

August 19, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Popular on Twitter, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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I did it !!
A few months ago I hit 10,000 mark on my Twitter account, which is one third of the followers Bernie Sanders typically has at a campaign rally. Hitting 10,000 was very exciting, but didn’t change my life.

A flood of 140 emotions
I’m happy I got 10,000 followers, but to get major traffic or respect on Twitter, you need at least 100,000. Still, hitting a milestone felt good! On the other hand, I seem to have Twittered away more than an hour a day for the last year achieving this goal. I often ask myself, “was it worth it?” It’s hard to know if social media is worth your time, because the real reward only comes once you have developed a huge following and superior skills.

The reward comes at the end
Having been a student of the spiritual world over twenty-five years, certain phrases still resonate in my mind: “The reward comes at the end.” We spend years, decades and our entire life meditating to reach a lofty spiritual goal. But, we don’t get the rewards incrementally. We get the reward only when we reach the destination. Twitter, much like life seems to operate according to the same logic.

Twitter lends itself to exponential growth
You need a foundation to grow on Twitter, and you won’t get much return on your investment (even if you are Donald Trump) while you are building that foundation. However, once you have a solid following, you will find that using the same hour a day you spend (or three in Kim Kardashian’s case) you will gain more followers. I noticed that I went from getting about 20 followers a day to over 100 without spending additional time. If you have more followers, you will have more people who regularly retweet you which will get your messages across. You will also be better at writing tweets and picking the best articles to write or share.

Halfway up the mountain 10,000 feet (or followers) high
I have tweeted far and wide, and well past base camp which I passed several months back. It’s too late to turn back now. But, I am excited to see what is in front of me. I will breathe easier as I reach new plateaus (good thing this isn’t an actual mountain; otherwise I’d need an oxygen tank at this point.) My journey would have been much easier if I had had a Sherpa, but I guess hiking Mt. Twitterest doesn’t work that way. But, when I get stuck for ideas, I just ask my imaginary Sherpa for one.

Having it all figured out
After having struggled on Twitter for years, I feel like I have somewhat figured it out. I remember the types of hurdles I went through four years ago wondering why nobody liked my lame tweets. I learned to warm up my tweets to make them fun to read. I also learned how to experience and analyze which types of topics, articles and tweets do best. At this point, it is just about repeating the process. But, repeating the process means exploring many interesting articles and new themes for articles that I will soon write. Although I feel I know it all now, the growth rate, and the type of situations I will run into will continue to change — and there will never be a dull moment, but if there is, I’ll make sure it doesn’t show up on my feed!

Using Twitter as a tool rather than an addiction
I feel that I am too obsessive about Twitter. I shouldn’t spend as much time as I do. Google+ doesn’t get me much results, but it does get me SEO value whenever I publish anything. If I spent five minutes less on Twitter and spent those five minutes publishing daily on Google+, I would be using Twitter as a tool rather than an obsession. Every several months, I come up with a new plan to optimize my daily schedule. I think I just figured out my next small adjustment. Putting time management aside, use Twitter to learn new skills, read new articles, and figure out what works. You don’t need two hours a day for this. You can get huge on Twitter in as little as half an hour per day and still be able to follow, unfollow, tweet, select great articles, and interact with others.

The dream I had when I hit 10,000
I actually had this dream a month ago. I was hiking. Then, I got to a part in the trail that was too steep to hike up. I had to grab on to the long grass and pull my self up the slope for a stretch. Then, I got to a part which was very rocky and I had to climb up very treacherous sections. Finally I arrived at a ledge above me which I wouldn’t be able to get past unless I became a spider who could crawl upside down and backwards to get to the edge of it and then on top. But, I glanced to the right and there was a trail covered by a wooden structure. I quickly made my way into the wooden walkway and it led to a French restaurant and pastry shop. There were twelve choices for fruit pies; eleven after my imaginary Sherpa appeared out of nowhere and got his hands on one. My interpretation of this dream was that I had struggled up hill for years, but now I would enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Mastering other networks
I did spend two years trying to master Facebook, Google plus and a few other social media networks. I made excellent progress and our Notary Facebook account generates over 5000 clicks per month to my blog which is amazing. However, I never felt pulled towards those networks in the long run.

Social Media Saying:
Why do I keep climbing Mt. Twitterest? Because its there!

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You might also like:

10 quick factors that differentiate a good blog entry from a bad one
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/03/10-quick-factors-that-differentiate-a-good-blog-entry-from-a-bad-one/

What is the difference between a Twitter account with 1000 followers an a million?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/07/11/what-is-the-difference-between-a-twitter-account-with-1000-followers-and-1000000/

Why you should hire a comedian instead of a CEO to help you co-blog
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/13/why-you-should-hire-a-comedian-instead-of-a-ceo-to-co-blog/

18 ways to boost your social media marketing in 10 minutes or less per day!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/05/05/18-ways-to-boost-your-social-media-marketing-in-10-minutes-day/

Wouldn’t it be nice to have your office in the Himalayas?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/04/27/wouldnt-it-be-nice-to-have-your-office-in-the-himalayas/

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10 quick factors that differentiate a good blog entry from a bad one

August 3, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Semi-Popular, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Many people write blogs, but most writers are not that interesting. Even some of the more famous blogs out there have very predictable and dull contents. So, how do you write winning blogs every time? It is not an exact science, but here are some tips.

(1) Having the right photo vs. having “a” photo.
Any blog about blogging will emphasize how you need a photo and how you will get more shares on Facebook, pins on Pinterest, and popularity in general by having a photo. But, having a mediocre photo might not get you much traction. You need to compare photos and see which ones get you the best following. Compare your analytics and use your senses. A good photo makes you say, “awe.” If you don’t have a reaction to the photo you are using, it is probably not the best you can do. Be selective if you want traffic. Thriving on the internet is based purely on how good you are at selecting and/or crafting top content and not on having mediocre photos.

(2) Length matters
I have the habit of jotting my ideas down on my iphone’s notes section. Then I’ll write lots of quick blog entries. This is a great way to experiment. However, most of the quick blogs I wrote that were three or four paragraphs with no sub-headers didn’t get read more than a few times. The blogs that were the most successful were about 500-700 words, and had many points within a greater theme, each with bolded sub-headers above each paragraph.

(3) Uniqueness is a huge factor
Many people write blog entries on topics that have been done to death. This might be okay if you offer a unique new twist on an old theme kind of like how Mozart wrote dozens of variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as a child. However, picking unique themes that will be populur to a very general audience is the not so easy to master key to popular blogging. If you are in a niche industry, you might not be able to stay relevant while pleasing the masses, but at least please the masses who have some relationship to your niche market!

(4) Promotion on Social Media is critical
If you do not have a good social media presence, you might find it hard to promote your blog. If you blog regularly and the Google Gods pick you up, then you can get traffic from them. But, that can take hundreds of blog entries to accumulate a significant start with the Gods. It takes time to develop a massive Twitter, Instagram or Facebook presence, so try to master social media as that is one of your keys to getting your blog articles in the door with readers.

(5) Networking with co-bloggers
If you have a proofreader, partner, or comedian who can add some humor to your blogs, this can really help. It makes sense to invest in blog articles that are already popular by sprucing those ones up. There is no point in improving upon blog articles with ideas that didn’t work though or new articles which you are not sure about.

(6) Being too factual seems to alienate readers
There are many bloggers who are great at researching facts and figures. They pride themselves on providing “useful” information. But, the reality is that people want articles that are fun, interesting, or that can change their lives with little or no effort. Yes, a good blog article needs some facts to back up your claims and hypotheses, but being overly factual doesn’t normally lead to articles that get read much. The overly factual articles sit on the shelf.

(7) Articles with many points on a single topic often win big.
Do you see titles such as 8 ways to succeed on social media or 11 ways to get your cat to meao more? These are titles that work. On social media, most bloggers make the mistake of not including unique content in the tweet itself. The result is generic looking titles that I would not invest any reading time in. Blog articles that have a theme and two or three examples do not do well. Longer articles with seven, ten, or twenty-eight ways to for example succeed in social media seem to do better. But, be unique about how you write and promote these articles otherwise they too will end up lost in cyberspace.

(8) Excite and entertain
Nobody wants to go back to a blog that puts them to sleep. You need to find a way for your blog to be easy to read, fun, and exciting. With half of the world’s population now claiming to be bloggers, you have to differentiate your boring content from everyone else’s, so try to be interesting!

(9) Too much advice can be a bad thing
My very best blog articles did the worst. But, why? Because I gave really fine-tuned technical advice for how to do better in business, social media, or in hiring. Too much nitpicky and analytical advice doesn’t usually do well unless your audience demands it. Additionally, I am writing to an average business oriented crowd and not to a high-brow crowd. Sometimes if I write above the level of my readers, they become alienated.

(10) Sentence structure of the title really matters
If you analyze blog titles and which ones do well, you will quickly understand that simple grammar actually sells. Subject – Object -Verb is a great structure to start with. My best blog article of all time had a title – Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully, so should you! It was simple, had a powerful message, and a call to action. Not all posts that use the formula for success will be successful, but it is a good place to start.

(11) A call to action
A good blog entry should get people out of their chair. There should be a call to action. They should want to get up and make a change to their life or business right after reading it. A call to action could be part of the title, like in my Steve Jobs example, and should definitely be at the end of a blog entry.

(12) Know your audience and personalize
It is hard to know the intricacies of your audience — their likes and dislikes. You have to experiment and learn little by little what they like as a group. And they will surprize you many times as well. I mentioned before that if I write articles that are too technical, analytical or high-brow my audience tends to not read them. On the other hand, if I write interesting articles with a meaningful and understandable point, they will get a generous supply of traffic.

(13) So, what can you do?
Start by experimenting and look at your analytics. Try to figure out which articles worked best and why. Look at what other people are publishing and what did better on their Facebook or Twitter. There is no way to absolutely master the art of knowing what is popular on social media, but the closer you look, the better you get. So start today, and as always, choose some pictures that knock your socks off! I am not using photos yet except on Facebook promoted posts, but I’ll begin using them soon as my blog grows!

Envisioning the long-term growth of your company in addition to the short-term

July 4, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I always get stuck on this. I study analytics, I figure out my next move, I take action and measure the results. I’m good at this and I like it. I do well with my business because I am analytical and enjoy analytics. I do well because I work hard and have vision, plan and take action. But, in my quest for growth, I tend to lose track of the long-term picture. The long-term baffles me. As a child, I had grandiose long-term strategies about how I would become a multi-billionaire like Warren Buffet, dominate industry, and be world famous. It didn’t quite work out like that although I am famous in my tiny industry. I am loved by some and despised by others because I implement policies for advertising that affect other people’s lives! But, I un an advertising site, so that is my prerogative!

As a realistic adult, it is harder to look at the long run. As a child, we think that life will go the way we plan it to go. We reject the idea that things beyond our control will happen. We don’t understand that relationships can ruin our lives, or that illness can cripple us. We are oblivious to the fact that an uncontrollable turn in the market can reduce our income to pennies overnight. As an adult, my problem is that I know to much, and have been through too much. I have lost my ability to be unrealistically optimistic. But, I need to look to the long term future. I need to envision some realistic ways that my business could grow and blossom into something bigger. Growth is the goal of any business (or Twitter account) and I want mine to grow.

Since I run directories, the only way to grow is to start new directories which is relentlessly time consuming and expensive. Dealing with programmers is nearly impossible these days as they are all overloaded and completely irresponsible. To get ahead these days you need good social media, and I am already spending half of my time on blogs and social media. If I try to hire others to help me with these tasks, their performance is usually so dismal that they get fired right away. Going into the unknown to grow is the problem.

I decided upon a solution for long-term growth of my outsourcing directory. I decided to go from writing 15 blog articles a month to 80. I meditated on this business problem while at the beach, and of all of the various solutions to the growth problem that I pondered, this was the one that would have the greatest results in the next year. I have never written so many blog articles before. This is going out on a limb into a new work strategy. Will the new help I hire do a good job? Should I use my existing people? Will I even have time to do half this amount of writing? I guess this little experiment will unfold. I’ll become almost a full-time blog writer. Wish me well.

Do you have a long-term strategy for your business’ growth over the next ten years. I think that both of us should meditate on this reality!