Category: Writing

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/DITksw3RhHY/

How does the air we breathe affect the work we produce?

It’s not a question I’d pondered very frequently, until I had the opportunity to chat with Ben Wallace for the latest episode of Break Free B2B. But it’s one of many considerations that came to light during his illuminating interview with TopRank Marketing President Susan Misukanis and myself.

As CEO of Link Positive, a clean-energy business development service, and co-founder of soon-to-launch energy optimization implementation startup Minify Energy, Ben consults companies about energy efficiencies, reducing environmental footprint, and creating a more comfortable workspace. As he explains, there are business and marketing implications that go well beyond what is apparent on the surface.

To illustrate this, he urges a focus on the “Triple Bottom Line”: Planet, Productivity, Profit. All three are intertwined, and they are critical to the way B2B organizations present themselves and succeed in the marketplace today and in the critical years ahead, factoring climate change and the values of new generations defining the workforce.

[bctt tweet="Planet, Productivity, Profit: These components make up the Triple Bottom Line, according to @BenWallace. #BreakFreeB2B #SustainableBusiness" username="toprank"]

In our wide-ranging conversation with him, Ben explores sustainability from many angles, including how it functions as a marketing tool, practical ways to make improvements, the concrete effects on employees, and what the future holds.

Break Free B2B Interview with Ben Wallace

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=speojMZ7D4Y]

If you’re interested in checking out a particular portion of the discussion, you can find a quick general outline below, as well as a few excerpts that stood out to us.

• 1:31 – Following in his father’s footsteps
• 3:27 – Moving from consumer goods to B2B 
• 10:50 – Shifting to building management 
• 12:11 – The influence of air quality on cognitive ability
• 16:56 – Equipping old building to meet new environmental challenges
• 22:27 – Influencing employee health when you don’t own the building
• 26:00 – The value of green buildings
• 28:45 – The ultimate in user-centric building design
• 29:55 – Sustainability as a marketing tool
• 32:55 – The role of compliance programs in sustainability
• 34:20 – Focusing on sustainability as a corporate value
• 37:13 – Have we lost the war against climate change?
• 42:19 – Does your company need a sustainability audit? 

Susan: Ben, could you talk a little bit about an “aha” moment which made you think you could help make workplaces more healthy environments? 

Ben: The vast majority of buildings out there don’t have smart sensing and controls in them—about 15 to 20% of the buildings have smart controls, and it’s mostly the class A high-rises for those who can afford it. But now, technologies are emerging with low cost sensors [such as] cloud compute—and the technology is there, especially with some of these born in the cloud, born digital, companies, making it accessible and affordable for pretty much everyone. And, also taking into account that usability factor and making it easy and so it’s not as complex to deploy … 

I think the biggest aha there … is occupant experience.  And, wellness and indoor air quality is one of the factors that has a huge impact on your cognitive ability. And there’s CO 2 levels … outside they’re around 400-500 parts per million, but in a building, they can rise up especially as people are breathing and you get a lot of occupants in a building … You know, you find you might be tired after lunch and blaming it on the pasta lunch you had, but when it’s quite often the CO 2 levels rising to a point where you’re really more lethargic, and have less cognitive ability. 

And so one of the big things that we saw there was the correlation of indoor air quality and productivity. And there’s something called the Cog Effect Study that Harvard has been working on for a few years now that has shown 100% cognitive ability improvement for green buildings that have better indoor air quality. 

And so the sad irony about that is many schools, for instance, have really poor air circulation … So the place where you need the most cognitive ability in a learning environment is often suffering the most are those with CO 2 levels. And so that was something that really was brought to light. The people in the building that are the ultimate customers—your tenants, your employees and everyone else.

[bctt tweet="You might be tired after lunch and blaming it on the pasta you had, but it's quite often the CO 2 levels rising to a point where you're more lethargic and have less cognitive ability. — @BenWallace #Productivity #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"]

Susan: How can agencies make more sustainable choices?

Ben: You can take control of your waste stream and you know, give some upward pressure to your property owners … And as well, thinking about just the smart use of scheduling. I mean, there’s a lot of equipment that runs 24/7 out there and lights stay on. Buildings are the second-largest consumer of energy after transportation in the US. HVAC and lighting makes up somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of that typically. 

So, there’s quite a bit that can be done with just some smart scheduling and smart controls. … Start looking at some [energy-saving programs]. US GGBC is a great resource for that, which is the Green Building Council. And the Department of Energy, which is where the ENERGY STAR benchmarking program exists—quite a bit of resources available there … 

I think you, as marketers, and as an agency, you can do a few things. One, you can choose clients with that factor as well, just as they’re looking at choosing you based on that. Maybe look at those who are in the emerging new energy economy and sustainability-oriented organizations. But I think just bringing that forward as much as possible, knowing the factors from supply chain and renewable waste stream and highlighting what your employees are doing out in their homes and in their communities as well … Recognizing what you do collectively is something that you could just conscientiously keep track of and look at how to improve your energy efficiency and good corporate citizenship from a global climate perspective.

Susan: Can you speak to incorporating your sustainability efforts into company values and brand messaging? 

Ben: Absolutely. We’ve seen an even flow of sustainability messaging over the years. There’s a period of kind of heavy greenwashing that was going on in the ‘80s, in the ‘90s. And so you’ve seen recycling programs and you’ve seen a little bit of energy efficiency with ENERGY STAR products and things like that. But the sustainability and corporate citizenship story can get a lot bigger …

It’s really expanded and it’s more and more important, widely recognized as something especially critical for us. They are sometimes considered the triple bottom line benefits. You’ve got profits and it’s definitely good for profits if you’re saving energy, saving on maintenance, getting a better lease. You are creating a more productive environment—there’s a huge set of layers of profit opportunity.

Really what we come back to so much in this is: how is it supporting wellness and reduced absenteeism and, just a happy productive workforce? But then the planet impact is the third “P” of that … There’s a lot of companies and states and cities that are just plowing ahead with a path to 100% renewable or zero carbon footprint. And so it’s a long haul to get there. But there are ways that you can not only save money and reduce your carbon and start measuring … to get to net zero over time—consuming less energy or producing more energy than you consume is actually going to be positive. There’s opportunities around that from a corporate perspective and roadmap that will align more so with what cities and counties are doing. 

Stay tuned to the TopRank Marketing Blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Break Free B2B interviews. Here are a few interviews to whet your appetite:

• Break Free B2B Series: Hal Werner on the Intersection of Marketing Creativity and Analytics
• Break Free B2B Series: Maliha Aqeel on How to Ace B2B Company Culture
• Break Free B2B Series: Adi Bachar-Reske on Taking the Lead in the Evolution of B2B Content Marketing

The post Break Free B2B Series: Ben Wallace on the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ in B2B Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWritePractice/~3/kWjaSCLoUqc/

Do you want to write a book? Is 2020 the year you finally accomplish your dream?

A new year is a time for fresh starts and audacious goals. And if your goal this year is to write your book, you’re not alone. One year is the perfect length of time to write and publish a book, as long as you know the right steps.

The First 10 Steps to Write Your Book in 2020

What are the steps to write a book? How do you get started? What should you do right now, this week, and this month in order to start your book writing year off strong?

Now, let’s take a look at the steps.

1. Create your intention

Your intention is a brief statement of when, where, and how long you’ll write each day. If you plan ahead right now, you’re much more likely to follow through and actually write.

My intention looks like this: I’ll write my book every weekday morning from 8 am to 10 am at the café down the street. What’s yours?

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

2. Find an accountability partner

Your intention only works if you follow through to complete it. Find one person you trust and ask them to hold you accountable to following your intention.

3. Write a premise

Who is your character? What is their goal? Who (or what!) is stopping them from accomplishing it, and what will happen when they reach it?

In just one sentence, describe these fundamental elements of your story.

4. Get feedback

Find three people you trust and share your premise with them. Do they want to hear the rest of the story? Or do they have suggestions for ways to make it even more exciting?

It’s scary to share your ideas and your writing with other people. But getting feedback now will help ensure that the story you spend months writing will be one people want to read, so don’t skip this step.

5. Read your competition

Find three books similar to the one you’re writing and read them. They’ll keep you inspired as you write your book.

6. Create an outline

Write down everything you know about what will happen in your book. You can make your outline as detailed or as sparse as you like, but take time to think through your entire book from start to finish.

A few weeks from now, when you’re in the ugly middle of the writing process, you’ll find it incredibly helpful to have these notes about the arc of your story.

7. Write your first chapter

This is it: start writing! Sit down at your desk, open your word processor, and write your first chapter.

8. Build your author website

Sure, right now you’re focused on writing your book, not publishing it. But the best time to start building your platform and readership is right now, long before your book goes to print.

The first step to publishing your book to a crowd of raving fans is to build your author website. Here’s our complete guide to creating an amazing website.

9. Publish something small

Publishing, like writing, is a skill that you improve at as you practice it. Don’t wait to finish your book before you publish your writing for the first time.

Long before your book is ready, get started by publishing something small — a blog post, a short story, or even a deleted scene from your book.

10. Don’t quit

To publish a book in 2020, you’ll have to use all of 2020. You can’t go work on something else. You can’t stop until your book is finished. Commit right now to finishing.

Print the 10 Steps

Want to save these ten steps and print them out so you can refer to them throughout the month? I’ve created a printable guide to help you get started writing your book.

Is This the Year You Write Your Book?

Let’s face it: writing a book is hard. It’ll take time, effort, and determination.

But I believe you have what it takes. You’re up for the challenge.

Just imagine: a year from now, you could be holding your published book in your hands.

I can’t wait to celebrate it with you!

What’s your writing goal for 2020? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The First 10 Steps to Write Your Book in 2020 appeared first on The Write Practice.

https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-promote-documentary-storytelling-series-social-media/

Does your marketing include episodic video content? Wondering how to promote your series? In this article, you’ll discover how to release and promote a documentary storytelling series on social media. Why Marketers Should Consider Documentary Storytelling Using storytelling rather than product pushing in marketing content can give you a significant edge. While traditional marketing highlights […]

The post How to Promote a Documentary Storytelling Series on Social Media appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWritePractice/~3/IPudJXiSSyw/

Wait a second. Did you just hear that?

Pick meeeee . . .

There it is. You heard it, too. Don’t try to tell me you didn’t. That was the sound of a semicolon in the throes of a self-esteem battle.  Poor semicolon, the most misunderstood punctuation mark.

If you’re not sure how to use semicolons in your writing, you’re in the write place (oops, sorry, bad habit). Read on for:

1. Semicolon definition
2. Semicolon mistakes
3. Semicolon examples
4. The 2 places to use semicolons correctly
5. Semicolon writing exercise

Semicolon Definition: What Is a ; (Also Known as the Super Comma)

The semicolon is sometimes called a super comma, and rightly so, because it can act as a kind of upgrade when just one comma isn’t enough or is confusing.

Why Most People Don’t Know When to Use a Semicolon (;)

If the semicolon were just a little less top-heavy, then it would be a comma, and rightfully used and appreciated.

Sadly, many writers have a confusing relationship with the semicolon, not really sure how or when to use them in their lovely sentences.

Some have rejected it outright, including Kurt Vonnegut, who said that the only reason to use a semicolon would be “to show you’ve been to college.”

Don’t worry, little semicolon. Your virtues will not be lost on this audience as long as I have a say in it.

Not sure you’ll ever figure out how to use a semicolon correctly? That’s cool! Consider using a grammar checking tool like ProWritingAid to tell you when you should and shouldn’t use semicolons. Check out our review of ProWritingAid here to see how it works.

The 2 Times You Can Use Semicolons Correctly

In all seriousness, the semicolon is probably the most misunderstood button on a keyboard (except for maybe whatever the heck the little hat over the 6 is). When it’s used properly, however, the semicolon can add beauty and sophistication to your writing.

There are two reasons you’ll need to use a semicolon. Let’s look at them both.

1. Use a semicolon to connect two independent clauses.

You know what an independent clause is, right? You’re a writer!

Sometimes, however, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the semicolon, and you’ll want to use it everywhere. Don’t.

If you’re going to use it, make sure that each clause can stand on its own as a fully formed sentence. If it helps, mentally separate the two clauses with a period to test their independence.

Justin didn’t walk; he ran.

Justin didn’t walk. He ran.

Or another example:

Martin squinted as he read over his news brief; he was in need of a good pair of glasses.

Martin squinted as he read over his news brief. He was in need of a good pair of glasses.

The semicolon in this sentence connects the two independent thoughts without bringing the narrative to a full stop in the way that a period would. A comma is completely inappropriate here because that would lead to a comma splice, and as we have previously discussed, comma splices are evil.

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

2. Use a semicolon in a list to separate objects that also have commas.

Semicolons can also be used as a kind of super comma, and should always be used in a list when separating objects that also have commas. Take the following sentence:

Diana included Athens, Greece; Paris, France; and Vienna, Austria, on her list of honeymoon cities that were not to be confused with their American counterparts in Ohio, Texas, or Virginia.

If Diana had included Athens, Greece, Paris, France, Vienna, and Austria on her list, her travel plans would be way more confusing. Using semicolons indicates that we can think of “Athens, Greece” as a single unit, even though there are more commas to come and more items in this list.

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

2 Essential Rules for Using Semicolons

In order to use semicolons properly when you’re not making lists, it’s important to remember a few things.

1. Each clause of the sentence needs to be an independent clause.

Let’s look back at Martin and his lack of corrective eyewear.

Martin squinted as he read over his news brief; he was in need of a good pair of glasses.

We need a semicolon here because the first half and the second half of the sentence can both stand on their own. Independent of each other, they’re both complete sentences in their own right.

What if we said this instead?

Martin squinted as he read over his news brief, wishing he had glasses.

“Wishing he had glasses” isn’t an independent clause. It can’t stand on its own without the first part of the sentence in front of it.

If you want to get technical about the grammar of this situation (and let’s face it, I always want to get technical about the grammar of a situation), “wishing he had glasses” is a dependent clause. There’s no subject in this clause, and so it needs the first clause, “Martin squinted as he read over his news brief,” to provide one (Martin).

In this case, where an independent clause and a dependent clause are connected, use a comma.

But if you do have two independent clauses (which you know, because you can split them apart into two separate, complete sentences), use a semicolon with confidence!

2. Use semicolons sparingly.

Okay, so this isn’t exactly about being right. You can use a dozen semicolons on a single page of writing, and if they’re all separating independent clauses or adding clarity to your comma-filled lists, they can all be correct.

But Kurt Vonnegut was on to something when he warned against the dangers of too many semicolons. I don’t think you should cut them all out! But do use them with care.

It can get exhausting for your reader if there is too much going on in one sentence. If there is too much going on in each sentence for a full paragraph, that may result in reader mutiny, and you’re going to have trouble bringing them back.

Use the semicolon to connect ideas that are related, but don’t try to connect every single idea in a paragraph. Periods are your friends (at least in this context).

Ellie subtly flared her nostrils; the smell of lilac and lavender filled the air; it reminded her of her summers in the hills of Ohio; she and her cousins would make crowns of daisies and give them to their mothers.

For the love of God and the sanity of your readers, do not do this.

Ellie subtly flared her nostrils. The smell of lilac and lavender filled the air; it reminded her of her summers in the hills of Ohio. She and her cousins would make crowns of daisies and give them to their mothers.

Put the Semicolon to Use With a Creative Writing Exercise

Don’t be afraid to experiment with semicolons. Sure, you might place a few incorrectly before you get the hang of it, but soon you’ll be able to use them with ease. It takes some practice, but you’ll start noticing places in your writing where a semicolon would add a welcome breath to the prose.

Do you like to use a well-placed semicolon, or do you agree with Vonnegut that they’re unnecessary and pretentious? Let us know in the comments.

The post Semicolon: The 2 Ways to Use a ; appeared first on The Write Practice.

https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/614982578/0/convinceandconvertconsulting/

Building consistent organic search traffic is every digital publisher’s dream. But what does it really take to make your content SEO friendly?

The good news is it is not a rocket science.

On top of that, despite what many people think, it has nothing to do with “tricking” Google into thinking your content is high-quality or SEO friendly.

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, which basically means making sure a search algorithm can easily access and understand your content. There’s no dark art involved.

Here are the steps you should take to make your content SEO friendly:

1. Match Your Content Idea to a Searchable Phrase (Search Query)

So you have an idea in mind which you feel like writing about. This is where any content creation starts: “I have something to say on this topic, and I feel like it will be interesting and/or useful”.

Is anyone searching for this topic?

Chances are, if you have come up with the topic, there should be other people who may feel intrigued enough to research it in Google.

But how exactly are people searching for it?

This is the key question you should ask if you want to generate organic search engine traffic to your future content.

You need to know what people type in a search box when trying to find answers to questions you are covering in your content.

So your first step is to find those actual search queries.

This exercise is also useful because it helps research. Knowing what people are typing in Google’s search box will likely help you discover interesting angles, narrow your initial idea down to make it more specific and even structure your future article to make it more useful.

So even if you don’t really care about organic search positions, keyword research is useful to do.

But how?

The keyword research process — at its core — hasn’t changed much over the years. We do have much more data to work with, but the actual process is the same.

These days, we have a variety of tools that help you identify a keyword to focus on. Here are a few tools and approaches you can try:

1.1. Type Your Terms into Ahrefs

Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer is a great tool for that because it offers “All keyword ideas” tab that broadens your initial idea to related and synonymous terms.

So if you were to type [grow tomatoes] and click through to that section, you’d find both phrases containing the term (e.g. “how to grow tomatoes”) and related concepts (e.g. “when to plant tomatoes“):

This broadens your outlook and helps you come up with more words to include in your copy.

1.2. Discover What Your Future Competitor is Ranking For

If you’ve done at least some research on your content idea, you may have found some resources that are on the same or similar topic. So use those URLs to discover what they are ranking for.

Serpstats’ URL Analysis section is great for that:

Notice that Serpstat is also showing all “extra” search elements that show up for each query in Google, so you get a good idea of what your future target SERPs (search engine result pages) may look like.

Note that both of these platforms offer “keyword difficulty” metric signaling of the level of your future organic competition. Obviously, the lower the keyword difficulty is, the better.

On the other hand, the higher the search volume, the more clicks each SERP may drive. So you want to try and pick a keyword that has high search volume and low keyword difficulty.

Here’s a more detailed guide on keyword research for you to become better at it. And here are even more keyword research questions answered.

2. Put Those Keywords in Prominent Places

While the process of researching keywords hasn’t changed much, the way we use keywords within content has.

These days, we don’t sacrifice the quality or flow of our copy for the sake of keyword density. In fact, we don’t pay attention to how many times we have used those keywords on-page.

We do use those keywords in prominent places on the page to make both Google and our human visitors more comfortable and confident there.

To put it simply, upon landing on your page, your users should clearly see terms they initially typed in the search box. That will put them more at ease and prompt them to linger a bit longer.

Keyword prominence means making your keywords visible on the page. It helps both search engine optimization and user-retention. Both of these help rankings.

Basically, you want those keywords to appear in:

1. Page title
2. Page URL slug (which in WordPress will be transferred from your title anyway)
3. First paragraph
4. Page subheading(s)
5. Image alt text (Do make those alt text descriptive as it helps accessibility)

Many SEO plugins (like Yoast and SEO Editor) can handle a lot of these SEO elements, so it is a good idea to pick one.

3. Use Semantic Analysis to Match Google’s Expectations and Make Your Content More Indepth

As I have already stated before, Google has moved away from matching the exact query to the pages in its index. Ever since its Hummingbird update, Google has slowly but surely become better and better at understanding each query context and searcher’s intent behind it.

To match that context better and optimize for the intent, use semantic analysis, which is basically about clustering each query into underlying and related concepts and covering you in your content.

Text Optimizer is a tool that takes Google’s search snippets for any query and applies semantic analysis to identify areas of improvement. Text Optimizer can be used for writing new content from scratch:

You can also use the tool to analyze your existing content to identify areas of improvements:

As you can see, Text Optimizer also helps analyze whether your content meets the query intent.

To increase your score at Text Optimizer:

• Choose the most suitable words for your content and include them naturally into your article. Avoid keyword stuffing. Only choose terms that you find fitting your current context.
• You may modify sentences or write new ones until you reach at least 80%

4. Diversify Your Content Formats

Google loves textual content, but the Internet in general and Google in particular has moved beyond text-only. Web users expect to see more formats, including videos and images. And Google recognizes that demand for content diversity, so it will feature all of those content formats.

In my previous article for Convince and Convert I described how videos improve SEO on many levels, including more exposure in search engine result pages and better on-page engagement.

With that in mind, any time you work on your article, think which other content assets can be created to enhance its value and improve SEO.

Luckily, creating videos doesn’t require any budget or skills. With tools like InVideo you can turn your articles into videos in a matter of seconds:

• Select “I want to convert article into video” option
• Paste in a maximum of 50 sentences (I usually use the tool to turn my article takeaways or subheadings into a video)
• Pick the template and let the tool do the job
• You can upload your own images (screenshots), tweak the subtitles and select the music

You are done! Now, upload the video to Youtube, add a keyword-rich title and description and embed it to your article.

For images, you can use Venngage or Visme to create nice visual takeaways or flowcharts (in case you have instructions to follow).

5. Set up an On-Page SEO Monitoring Routine

Finally, there’s always room for improvement, so monitoring your organic traffic is an important step here.

The must-have tool for that is Google’s own Search Console, which will show you which queries are sending you traffic. Just check your “Performance” tab regularly:

Another useful tool to have is Finteza, which shows your organic traffic performance allowing you to dig deeper to see whether your organic traffic clicks engage with your ads.

… or whether each search query sends traffic that brings conversions.

6. Don’t Forget External (Off-Site) Signals

Obviously, it is more to Google position than on-page optimization. You still need those backlinks that would help Google assign some authority to your content. But that’s a topic outside of the scope of this article. Besides, there’s a lot of content already written on that. And here’s another collection of tips on how to build links.

Finally, the above steps apply to any kind of optimization, whether it’s a blog, product pages or lead-generating landing pages.

I hope this guide will help you optimize your content to make it easier for Google to understand and hence help the search giant’s algorithm assign search positions it truly deserves.

The post How to Make Content SEO Friendly appeared first on Convince and Convert: Social Media Consulting and Content Marketing Consulting.