SOCIAL MEDIA BOOTCAMP FOR WEDDING PROFESSIONALS

THINGS I’VE LEARNEDFROM 4 YEARS OF BUSINESS BLOGGING…

…and being married to a Tech-Geek!

BLOGGING IS FUN…

Who are you doing it for?

Why are you doing it?

What will motivate you?

How will you know if you’re “succeeding?”

AND HARD WORK!

WHO IS YOUR BRIDE?

Where does she live?

When does she book your services?

How much does she spend on her wedding?

What makes you the right fit for YOUR bride?

TODAYS BRIDE IS SOCIAL & CONNECTED!

77% of brides will use online resources to plan their wedding

THEY SPEND MORE HOURS ON THE INTERNET EACH MONTH THAN THEY DO ON TELEVISION, RADIO OR PRINT…

…COMBINED

THE BENEFITS OF BLOGGING

1. THE PERSON BEHIND THE BUSINESS

Personable & conversational

Passion & excitement

2. ESTABLISH YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT

Blog what you know

Establish trust

3. EASIER SALES

Educate brides before the “sale”

Consultations are bride-focused, less sales

Save consultation time

4. SEARCH ENGINE VISIBILITY

Brides are shopping online

Search engine rank is important

More eyes on your business & website

TYPES OF BLOG PLATFORMS

Wordpress

Blogger

Tumbler

TypePad

BLOGS 101

Header Menu Bar Posts Comments Pages Contact Form Archives RSS Feed/Subscription

POSTING 101

Getting to your admin panel:www.stellaeventdesign.com/workshop/wp

-admin

Or scroll to bottom of page and click SITE ADMIN under Meta section

Username: adminPassword: bootcamp

CREDITING BLOG POSTS

Always include photographer credit and link to their website, blog, or the photo location

Link to any sources, even if it’s another blog. If you’re not sure if you should…you probably should!

Blogs are a community

SEO

Search Engine Optimization

The practice of using techniques to make your site more search-engine friendly.

Goal = come up higher in searches

GOOGLE FOR DUMMIES

You put your website or blog online

Google “crawls” your site

Determines relativity & ranks site

The words you use are important

PUTTING SEO TO WORK

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CONTENT!TitlesBody textFocus on keywords!

Exercise: Make a list of 10-15 search terms that a bride may type into Google when planning her wedding. Specifically, when looking for more info on a business such as yours.

SEO-FRIENDLY CONTENT

Good: Sarah and Steve had a beautiful wedding in St. Joseph last Saturday.

Better: Sarah and Steve’s wedding took place at The Veranda at the Whitcomb in St. Joseph on Saturday.

Best: Sarah and Steve’s beautiful outdoor wedding took place at The Veranda at the Whitcomb, a gorgeous venue overlooking Lake Michigan in St. Joseph.

PUTTING SEO TO WORK Outbound links

Link when necessary and appropriate Giving away power Link within when possible

Tagging & Categories Use variations of your keywords Don’t show on posts if you include long lists of tags

New content The more you update, the more you get crawled

CONTENT

Length: less than 500 words What do you have to say? How do you want to say it? How much detail do you want to go into?

Voice Conversational Choose an approach and stick with it

Write as if you’re speaking to one person…”you may want to consider cupcakes instead of cake” NOT “brides may want to consider cupcakes…”

Relevance Is your post timely? Is it something people will care about? Is it a topic appropriate for your audience?

Formatting Keep things consistent Consider your overall brand Grammar and spelling

Topics What will you write about? How much do you know about the topic?

FINDING INSPIRATION

Day-to-day tasks Bridal magazines How-to articles Current Events Tips & Tricks Frequently Asked Questions Show your work Educate Guest bloggers

AM I GIVING AWAY TOO MUCH INFO?

SHARING IS CARING!

BENEFITS OF EDUCATING BRIDES

Branded as an expert

How your business works, what they can expect

Address common concerns

Press opportunities

BREAKOUT SESSION

Create a list of 20 potential blog post topics

Day-to-day tasks Bridal magazines How-to articles Current Events Tips & Tricks Frequently Asked Questions Show your work Educate Common misconceptions Trends Behind the Scenes

MAKE YOUR BLOGGING EASIER

Set a blogging schedule How often & what days

Create themes Tuesday Shoesday, A-Z Flowers, Tuesday Etsy

Love

Schedule your posts ahead of time Choose one day to blog each week

7 DEADLY SINS OF BUSINESS BLOGGING

1. USING YOUR BLOG AS YOUR PRESS CENTER

How to Avoid this: Just don’t do it! Present information in an interesting,

conversational tone

2. NOT BLOGGING REGULARLY

Stagnant content is noticed by Google Readers are aware Regular posting turns readers into fans

How to Avoid this: Schedule posts Post on predicable days (T-Th, M-W-F) Enlist the help of others

3. NOT ENABLING CONVERSATION

Your blog should be a conversation, encourage commenting

Address comments and questions

If you choose to “bury” a negative comment, consider reaching out to that person privately

4. MAKING NEW CONTENT HARD TO DISCOVER

Don’t make visitors search for your blog Additional posts should be easy to find

How to Avoid this: Prominent link on website Use FB & Twitter to promote blog posts Setup an RSS feed or subscription option

5. EXPECTING TOO MUCH, TOO SOON

Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint It takes time to build leadership

Interactive community

How to Avoid this: Don’t be frustrated by no comments Use analytics to keep you motivated Blogging can be fun if you make it manageable for

yourself

6. COPYING CONTENT

Google notices this, and assumes you’re a scraper Flags you as a spammer, brings down credibility

How to Avoid this: Post new content If you recycle a post, change wording & titles Ask guest bloggers to post original content

7. MIXING BUSINESS & PERSONAL

Geared towards your potential clients Do not share your frustrations or struggles on

the blog

How to Avoid this: Show personality, but keep it positive Do not share horror stories If you want to address the inner workings of

your business, start a separate blog

BUSINESS BLOGGING ETIQUETTE

Draw a line between personal and professional

Always credit photos, and link to resources

DO repost comments or feedback you receive, and respond to all comments, when possible

Do not sign up your readers to email lists or newsletters without their permission---NOT COOL!

DON’T STEAL!

Where are you getting your photos from?

Are you showing photos of your own work?

If you’re showing photos of someone else’s work is it going to be mistakenly seen as your work?

Consider how you would feel If you saw a photo of a bouquet YOU created, posted on another florists blog post, would it bother you?

ADVANCED TIPS & TRICKS

Setting up Contributors & Authors in Wordpress

Adding Tags and Categories

Commenting on blogs

Adding links to Facebook & Twitter

Track your keywords

GOOGLE ANALYTICS Dashboard

Visitors Referring sites v. search v. direct traffic Map Overlay When are they visiting? Where are they coming from

Keyword searches

Time spent on site

Top content