Have you ever received guest blog spam? Recently I was rereading Randy Clark’s book, How to Stay Ahead of Your Business Blog Forever. In it, Randy explains how he gets many requests for guest blogs and he included one that was filled with terrible grammar. However, some requests are much tougher to discern as being possible spam.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed about these many guest blogging requests. Mostly, you can ignore these blogging requests.

They’re unsolicited.

If someone reaches out to you and you’ve never heard of them before, that’s a big clue that you’re dealing with spam. Read carefully if they say you’re the greatest, best, etc. Sometimes there may be a link to one of your blog posts, but often there isn’t. I’ve talked about spam before: Worst Social Media Practices (and how to avoid them)

There are no signature lines.

At the bottom of the email, where there should be a signature line, there’s no phone number, no website, no nothing. Who reaches out to someone with a business request and has no signature line? Spammers, that’s who!

Requests are filled with mistakes.

Does the request read like it was written by a third-grade student on a bad day? That’s another red flag. Do you want someone who doesn’t even edit their own work messing around with your website? NO!!! By the way, if you’ve never used an editor before, you might want to consider one yourself, at least for your important and/or lengthy articles. How a Good Editor Makes Your Writing Shine.

How to Avoid Guest Blog Spam Requests| Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Vet every request thoroughly.

As Randy says in his book, “Don’t let ego get in the way of common sense. It’s nice to be wanted, and some of these requests look impressive. Don’t bite without a complete search of the author and all links he or she represents.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

Check out any links the guest blogger wants to include.

I generally only have 4-6 links in a blog post maximum. Recently a guest blogger wanted to included upwards of 30 links in a short blog post (under 500 words). You might want to decide how many you want. If someone is creating many many links, that’s a clue. And check where those links are going.

Create a checklist for future guest bloggers.

If you really want to include guest bloggers as part of your strategy, make a list of what those guest bloggers need to do. What is the minimum and maximum word count? How many links in and out? Who provides the images and how many? And don’t forget which topics you’d like your guest blogger to write about. If you have an audience of technophobes, then having a guest blogger write about a technical subject isn’t going to appeal to your audience. What else do you have on your checklist? Leave me a comment!

Why you need to use empathy in your marketing

Recently, I was on Bridget Willard’s podcast, Launch with Words. If you haven’t checked it out, you definitely should because Bridget is awesome! And my friends know that I don’t use the awesome word lightly. Honestly, Bridget is one of the hardest working marketers around and you should get to know her. Here’s the full podcast: Empathy is More Important Than Ever with Carol Stephen. And I want to go into a little more detail about why your marketing should encompass empathy.

Marketing and social media have changed

I’ve talked about this before: gone are the days when you can post a picture of an old lemon and have a hundred people like it. Now your competition is tougher, even if you jump to the newest social media platform. You’re going to have thousands of people posting about lemons, lemonade, recipes for lemon cake, and so on. You have to differentiate yourself, and in many cases, you need to pay. Even a small budget will help get more eyes on your posts.

Engagement counts

If you just post and go or constantly broadcast without any interaction, people will lose interest. That is, unless you’re a big fancy news outlet with millions of subscribers. But for a small or medium-sized business, you need to interact. In order to interact, your business needs to have a unique voice. So it’s a good idea to decide ahead of time what you’ll say, what you won’t say, and what kind of personality or voice you’ll have on social media. For more about engagement, you might like this: You Don’t Need Fairy Dust to Improve Your Social Media Engagement.

More empathy, less snark

Right now, people are hurting. Many are hurting a lot. Think about all we’ve been through recently. Climate change, the Pandemic, and now World War Three (at least many are calling it that). We’ve lost friends and family and haven’t been able to travel. Some of us couldn’t even visit our sick relatives in the hospital. Kids, in particular, are having a tough time with being on Zoom calls and not being able to see their friends. It’s a lot to handle right now. So erring on the side of empathy in your marketing is an especially good idea. Which reminds me of a recent article I read about the Culture of Caring and retaining talent. “Creating a culture of caring really starts also with the leadership team,” said Laura Brusca, senior vice president of corporate communications for Forbes. Leaders must show that they care, not just saying the words. That can be as simple as checking in with employees and making sure they’re taking vacation days.”

We’re tired

All of us are more than a little tired. But as marketers, we still need to be able to see things through our customers’ eyes. They’re tired, too, and engaging with them on an emotional level is a good idea. Sometimes just listening is a good idea. A lot of people could use a high five, a hug, or a big pile of cookies.

When social media breaks down, it’s back to basics!

We’ve all had those days when something doesn’t work, technologically speaking. Zooms don’t zoom, WiFi breaks down, or Facebook won’t let you post what you want. And in those moments, you might have to get back to basics with how you market yourself or your business. So what would you do if forced to market without social media? Here are some ideas.

Call people on the (gulp!) telephone

Now that our phones do everything except bake bread, we don’t use them for their original purpose anymore. We store thousands of photos, use it for complex math problems, or play games on it. But calling people? Nah! Who does that any more? But listen: if you really want to get the word out about your event, business, or new website, why not call people? So few people do this any more, that it just might work! I wrote about this a couple of years back: Yes-why not call your friends on the telephone? It’s fun to scare people with a phone call, after all! And I’m guessing the first thing they’re going to say? “What’s wrong?”

Send a postcard or letter

Another old-school technique that could work if nothing else does! If you remember how to use a pen, and you still have some cards or paper around, you could actually write a letter. Or, if you want to be funny, you could sketch some emojis and send that instead! Seriously, though, sometimes a letter or postcard campaign could be the way to go if no one else is doing it.

Use door hangers or flyers

Do you remember these relics of days gone by? Hotels still use door hangers so you can tell the cleaning staff whether you want your sheets changed or not. But you could use door hangers, especially if you have a brick-and-mortar business that’s looking for locals. I’ve heard they work well for car repair shops, in particular. Flyers are another one that people might not have seen for a while. If you don’t understand what flyers or door hangers are, maybe call your local museum. Or your local boomer friend.

Word of mouth

Word-of-mouth marketing is probably the best kind there is. And although the word of mouth might be facilitated by social media, it’s often just one neighbor telling another about a service that they like. It’s how I’ve found my CPA, plumber, and handyman, come to think of it. Nobody wants to try a service that’s untested by their friends and neighbors. Nobody wants to be that first penguin off the iceberg!

Go to their house!

No, no, no! I’m just kidding about this one. If you do this, you’ll probably get arrested for being a stalker. But one thing’s for sure, when social media breaks down, you need to get back to basics and use your creativity! Whether that’s getting outside or calling people is up to you.

Email marketing

Believe it or not, email marketing continues to be very popular. People will follow and read newsletters from those they know, like, and trust. Here are 11 Ways to Promote Your Product Without Using Social Media (and they list email marketing as one way to promote your product).

Recently, on our Tuesday#DigiBlogChat Larry Mount (@LazBlazter) and I spoke to Samir Al-Battran of @connexinet and @Tweepsmap about the brand new Toolbox recently rolled out by Twitter! And we discovered that there’s a lot to know and learn about the Toolbox!

The Twitter Toolbox, defined

What is the Twitter Toolbox, you might ask? As Samir Al-Battran explained, Twitter Toolbox is a hub (in beta phase) where people on Twitter will be able to easily discover, learn more about, and quickly sign-up to third-party developer tools to enhance their Twitter experience. Developers created these tools to make Twitter better and safer. And Twitter launched The Toolbox on February 1, 2022.

How to access the toolbox

Twitter Toolbox has its own website where you can find and get started with tools https://developer.twitter.com/en/community/toolbox…

The toolbox includes three sections: 1. Expression Tools, 2. Safety Tools, and 3. Measurement Tools. Twitter has listed Tweepsmap, an AI-driven Twitter analytics and publishing platform, under Measurement Tools, although you can actually do much more than measure with Tweepsmap.

The Twitter Toolbox: New Digital Tools| Image by endri yana yana from Pixabay

Where would you want to start with the Toolbox?

Personally, I’ve already used Thread Reader, Buffer and of course Tweepsmap! But I’d love to sit down and try all of the tools in the toolbox. Personally, I’d pick one of the three sections and then choose a single tool to start. Otherwise, you might be overwhelmed.

Why did Twitter launch the Toolbox?

Samir: “To help people on Twitter easily discover, learn more about, and quickly sign-up to third-party developer tools that will enhance their Twitter experience, and to support developers on promoting their tools and growing their audience.” Shruti Deshpande (@shruti12d) explained that Twitter launched the Toolbox to make the most of the Twitter analytics and tools that help content creation in order to maximize your Twitter marketing. THIAM MÉKÀ de GOGUENHEIM (@ThiamMeka2Gogue) added that Twitter launched the Toolbox to provide support to @Twitter‘s users in elevating their #Twitter experience.

Will Twitter add more tools to the Toolbox?

Samir: “Twitter Toolbox is currently in beta. Developers who are interested in having their tool considered for Twitter Toolbox in future can join the waiting list.” So that sounds like a definite yes, although we won’t know for certain until Twitter announces that there are more tools. 

What publishing capabilities can the tools in the Toolbox provide?

Once again, from Samir: “Expression tools on Twitter offer smarter ways to compose, organize, and manage Tweets. Check out the product features for each tool on the Toolbox website. With Tweepsmap, you can schedule threads/polls/posts and measure engagement analytics in one platform! ” And @JonWesselink added “Scheduling threads and polls, anyone? ;)”, along with the image above. 

What Safety Tools are available in the Toolbox?

Toolbox currently includes three safety tools: Bodyguard, Block Party, and Moderate. You can get details on all the safety tools (and other tools, too) if you go to the Toolbox.