You need an edge.  You can’t simply blog and hope for the best.  Competition is too intense and attention is too scarce. The most enduring competitive advantage is a deep understanding of what makes your reader’s tick.  Specifically, how they build rapport with experts and mentors in their lives.  As a professional blogger you are trying to position yourself as your reader’s mentor to do this you need to insert yourself into their day-to-day story. Here’s an interesting strategy for doing just that. The Hero’s Journey. For that matter so did J.R. The complete journey  has 12 stages. MORE >>

After a brief absence (December and January) the Ottawa Twitter top 20 makes its return. started doing these tables over a year ago to illustrate how being popular (Grader) on Twitter doesn’t necessarily mean you have influence (TweetLevel).   Over time many of the names have changed, established handles have slipped and new ones enter the fray. Both lists are always in a state of flux. But do these tables tell the popular/influence story?  TweetLevel changed its algorithym a few months back; and it seems that Grader must have done so too.  This is now the exception. phdinparenting. MORE >>

Tweet Content marketing is on the rise and many people say that “content is king” It seems that more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of great content since ‘content marketing’ has expanded at an exponential rate in 2011 alone on Google. The people at Bluegrass made this infographic illustrating how content marketing is gaining a foothold and how it is used by brands. For brands, content marketing is mostly about creating brand awareness, generating leads and acquiring customers. In other words, content is what creates value for the audience. MORE >>

Iceland's citizen assembly discussing the country's constitutional reform. Image credit: Everyaware. In a truly dramatic demonstration of the power of citizen activism, Iceland drew up its new constitution using crowdsourcing in late 2011. Following Iceland’s complete economic collapse and bankruptcy due to irresponsible banking practices, the nation was eager to use social media to get its citizens involved in writing their own future. The The initiative began with a national forum in which 950 people were randomly selected to spend a day discussing a new constitution. MORE >>

It’s frustrating that one of the most important blog success elements is so often ignored. m talking about the email opt-in for getting blog updates or an offer.  I think deep down most people feel “icky” about asking for a person’s email address. They put it off until the last minute, then throw something up there as an afterthought. m not going to go into all of the reasons why you should have an email opt-in. I’ve ve already written a novel’s worth of posts on the topic.  What I will tackle is how to give that lonely and forlorn email opt-in form a makeover. Great First Impression. Name It. MORE >>