Podcast appearances and mentions of heidi cohen

Episode 121 - Nobody Trusts Anybody Anymore Nobody trusts anybody anymore. At least that's how it seems. I recently read a ridiculously awesome article on Heidi Cohen's blog about five marketing trends https://heidicohen.com/marketing-trends/​, one of which had to do with the erosion of public trust. Unfortunately, this lack of trust can have a negative impact on the success of your marketing and sales efforts. The less people trust, the less likely they are to support brands and businesses unless they're already loyal customers. That's where social media can help. Social media makes it possible for you to build mutually beneficial relationships with those on the receiving end of your messages. Social media gives you the opportunity to show that you have a personality, not just a pulse. The more people learn about you on social media, the more likely they'll be to trust you. #SocialMedia​ #Marketing​ #Branding

Consistent content saves you time, it gives you an established content structure and format, and it sets expectations for your audience. In today's episode, we're talking about Heidi Cohen's article on using consistent content to attract attention and to hook your audience in.

Do you do whatever you can to get a prospect’s attention? Many marketers actually miss the mark when it comes to connecting their customers and content. Today, we’re talking to Heidi Cohen, chief content officer of Actionable Marketing Guide. She describes how you can build momentum to keep your content visible, consumable, and actionable. Also, Heidi shares a method to follow for your content’s amplification and distribution process. Some of the highlights of the show include: Difference between distribution and promotion of content Distribution Method: Ignite (up to first three days): Build a network and spark participants’ interest and willingness to engage with and share your content Fuel (first month): Plan, manage, and schedule social media marketing to keep content fresh and visible; utilize many mediums (i.e. video, audio) Spread (ongoing): Road test content to determine what works or doesn’t to attract new people; perform audit to update content and get conversions Less than 60% of digital traffic is human; build relationships and be creative to reach humans who will share your content Ways to create new or keep content going include visuals/images, guest posts, build authority, get people involved, take content live, and go to conferences    Links: Heidi Cohen Subscribe to Heidi Cohen’s Newsletter Hootsuite Buffer Aaron Orendorff How To Avoid The Most Costly Mistake In Influencer Marketing With Shane Barker Andy Crestodina Steve Dotto The Secret 3 Steps For Content Amplification And Distribution Success 5 Basic Content Types Customers Need How We Increased the Readership of Buffer’s Blog to Over 1.5 Million Visits Yale Appliance Brian Dean The New York Public Library on Instagram How to Network at a Conference: 101 Tips From Marketing’s Best Content Marketing World Gini Dietrich Write a review on iTunes and send a screenshot of it to receive a CoSchedule care package!  

What is the next big thing in the boundless world of content marketing? Where do we go from here?Marketing is moving towards interactive vs. interruptive content. Intelligence over aggression is becoming the standard for our ever more discerning customers. It can be easy to get lost in creating vanity content, but sometimes a back to the basics approach, adapted to new media, leads to increased ROI. Going beyond text in your content marketing does not mean you can lose sight of your mission: to provide the consumer with brand building material. We must adapt to the ever evolving climate while sticking to what works.There seem to be two camps formed in content marketing: "home run hitters", and "10% optimizers". While both will flow money to the bottom line: not all marketers are multi-faceted. Splintering of techniques will give you a myriad of content to present to your clients. While your corporate identity and compass should be cohesive, fluidity within that structure is paramount.As your brand grows, a community forms around your brilliance. Your clients become megaphones for content that radiates confidence. It is not the best content that wins: it is the best promoted that will take the day.The premier agencies have a top-down expectation of creative excellence coupled with a willingness to fail. The merging of "small concept" optimization and "big-idea" confidence will grow your business. Content marketing shaped the landscape in which we work today. What was once niche is now the mainstream, yet there are still some tried and true methods that work. Encouraging creative agility in your teams will never fail you. Build a pervasive culture of passion.On this episode of Marketing to Marketer, Joe Cox, Doug Kessler, Andy Crestodina, and Heidi Cohen get together at the Content Marketing World conference to discuss evolution in the industry.

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! GUYS, I GOTTA BE HONEST… Going places by myself where I have to talk to strangers is like my least favorite thing to do. I remember as a kid and even into my early twenties, I got bad anxiety if I had to call someone or answer the phone and talk to someone I didn’t know. Like, I wouldn’t even call to order a pizza. But then when I’m around people I know, or I’m talking to strangers online (you guys don’t feel like strangers to me, but technically, you are), I’m totally at ease and no conversation is off limits. IT’S LIKE I’M TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE SOMETIMES… CAN YOU RELATE?? Back in late February, I attending Social Media Marketing World with over 4000 other people to learn about how to use social media to grow our businesses. Instead of doing what I always do at conferences (talk to no one, back to the hotel ASAP, yoga pants, and room service in bed), I did some things that scared me. Aside from that one night I had room service in bed. I did things that made my heart pound, my face turn red and my eyes get a little misty from trying to hold back all the emotions. I’ll tell you more about how I got out of my comfort zone in a minute, but first, I want to share with you some of my key takeaways from the largest conference on social media marketing in the world with the hope that these foundations will guide you as you work on building your website, building your audience and turning your expertise into income. Because as uncomfortable as it was, it was totally worth it, and it will just get easier every time. Speaking of being scared, if you haven’t signed up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge yet, click here to join over 5,000 other bloggers and business owners overcoming their fear of tech and building their websites with WordPress. 1. THE MASTERS FOCUS ON THE FUNDAMENTALS Robyn Openshaw, founder of the multi-million dollar blog greensmoothiegirl.com talked about how she was able to get traction in growing her blog to over $5 million dollars in annual revenue over 11 years by consistently focusing on the fundamentals of blogging: Be yourself and write in a conversational tone Go deep on the subjects you write about Create freebies and always be building your email list Heidi Cohen shared her top three strategies for creating consistent, relevant content. My key takeaway from her presentation is that the masters don’t just wing it. Masters spend intentional time every single day generating ideas. They spend intentional time vetting ideas, researching ideas and making sure they are relevant to their audiences. And they become prolific through practice, instead of worrying about perfection. What this means for you: That anyone can build a profitable blog, but most people won’t put in the work to master the fundamentals. The way to stand out is to actually do the work, regardless of whether you’re seeing instant results. Just like anything else, you won’t see the rewards of your consistency until later. 2. A SMALLER, MORE RELEVANT AUDIENCE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN A LARGER, LESS ENGAGED ONE Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner said that the future of social media and online marketing, in general, is going to force us to have to zero in on our target audiences and build meaningful two-way relationships with them. And Robyn Openshaw said the same thing – that 5,000 super-engaged fans are worth more to your business than 100,000 who never open your emails. What this means for you: That you don’t have to stress over numbers. Instead, put some intentional effort to finding your audience online and figure out how to get meaningful, valuable content in front of them. 3. SHAREWORTHY CONTENT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER BEFORE My biggest takeaway from this week is that Facebook is prioritizing showing content that gets long comments and shares, also known as engagement. Basically, instead of everyone seeing everything, they want real people to share content. Sounds pretty straightforward, but it’s freaking marketing people out! Pat Flynn drove this point home in his keynote about creating super fans (which was amazing, if you ever get a chance to see him speak don’t miss it). He said that most people are focused on just getting more traffic and new subscribers that they miss out on serving the people who are already part of their community, and the best way to do that is create amazing, super valuable, actionable content that can get your audience a quick win, and then they’re in with you for life. Sound familiar? I learned it by watching what Pat has done for the past 3 years, and he just confirmed that’s his strategy at Social Media Marketing World. What this means for you: Creating what I call “shareworthy content” is more important than ever before because the algorithm doesn’t really care if you’re sharing your own stuff. It cares that OTHER PEOPLE are sharing your stuff. And other people aren’t going to share your simple checklist if it doesn’t solve a problem, entertain them or give them a win. Like Chalene Johnson says, “People share what makes them look good.” So create content – especially freebies –  that makes your audience look smart, funny or inspiring and you’re on the right track to building an audience of highly engaged people that will tell everyone about you and can’t wait to see what you’ve got coming next. 4. THE TIME TO START MONETIZING IS NOW Green Smoothie Girl wishes she could go back in time and monetize her blog from day one. Oh, and she’s never put a single third-party ad on her site. Know what that tells me? That’s she’s not just focused on the number of page views, but she’s focused on building a highly relevant audience over just the numbers. Are you seeing a trend here? Mark Manson has had over 100 blogs that he’s monetized, including a blog about litter boxes and another about baking. What this means for you: You do not have to wait until you have a big audience and then launch a product to start making money from your blog! You can start monetizing from day 1 exactly like I did, and then grow it over time as your audience and your email list grows.

Thankfully, many marketers have converted to the “dark side” and went into Content Marketing for large companies, to the benefit to our industry as a whole. This shift has helps us understand the relationship between sales and marketing, allowed us to dive deeper into the story, and make us aware of the need to communicate more with our customers and beyond just transactional emails. Heidi sums it up quite nicely by saying, “At the end of the day, it's about, what are your business goals? What are the metrics associated with it? Who's your audience? And what is the context of the landscape? Right?”In this episode, Heidi Cohen and Nicole Mills discuss pulling from journalism to do Content Marketing better in the enterprise.https://enterprisemarketer.com/podcasts/m2m/season-01-show-14/

Heidi Cohen, author, holistic practitioner of yoga, color and sound meditation, vibrational therapies, transformational coach, seminar facilitator and events co-ordinator for retreats discusses how to catalyze the heart away from the mind’s suffering to joyful living. www.inharmonywithheart.com’ … Read more about this episode...

Welcome to the SuccessLab Podcast episode #21. In this episode, I'm in the lab with Mignon Gould, the founder of TheChicSpy.com. We talk all about growing an online business and how Mignon is blazing a trail in the world of digital publishing. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey and what led to the launch of The Chic Spy? I had a blog called Hollywood Digs and I would find things for people that they had seen in films or on television. So, if they saw a handbag and said, “I had to have it,” I would do a little research and see where that handbag came from. It was fun and exciting and I even got featured in a local magazine during their television sweeps but I decided I wanted to write something a little bit more in depth that had to do with style and fashion. At that time I didn't know what I wanted to call it, I just knew I wanted to do more writing rather than the service of finding things for people, so that's how it began. Have you always been interested in style and fashion? I always say to people, when other kids were reading “Green Eggs and Ham,” I was flipping through my grandmother's Bergdorf Goodman catalogue, clipping out things and making montages of looks that I liked. So, I've always been intrigued by it and enjoyed it. To me, it is a form of art because you are able to create an aesthetic just by the way you match things and you put things together. I knew I wasn't going to be a designer, but knew I wanted to work with it somehow, and that's what led me to the journalistic side of the industry. How have you built up your following over the years? I launched The Chic Spy in 2007 when I was working for a local newspaper and I was writing and styling for a print publication. I decided I really wanted to write more - I wanted to go up that next notch with fashion. I wanted to know behind-the-scenes [information] - why they choose certain fabrics, what inspires designers, etc? So, I decided to pursue a graduate degree in fashion journalism and there were only two places in the world that offered it – Central Saint Martins in London and The Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I chose San Francisco, a beautiful city to explore. At first my blog was just a hobby, something fun, a way for me to share my passion with readers. When I went there [San Francisco], I was reignited to make my blog more than just a blog, and turn it into more of a publication. I used it for my thesis, so it was a re-launch for me. That's basically how I got started with The Chic Spy evolving from a blog into a digital magazine. Growing traffic in the beginning was quite difficult because usually when you are working on a blog, you really are trying to give people a service - something that they feel they can take away with them. How I really got the push in numbers was from one post in particular. The post was on how to pronounce fashion designer's names. It was kind of the phonetic spelling and now it's actually an audio guide that people can listen to. It was featured on TeenVogue.com and just literally overnight, my numbers tripled after that was featured and they've been going up ever since. One tip for attracting traffic is to study your traffic. Find some type of traffic-monitoring tool like Google Analytics. You gain an understanding of the people who are visiting your site you can create more content that appeals to them. At the time, before I was featured on Teen Vogue I was not really thinking about who my reader was, I was just putting out content. When I started seeing what they were actually visiting, what was getting a lot of hits, what was being shared the most, that gave me an indicator of the people who were visiting my site and what type of content they were interested in. You've created a really great community around The Chic Spy. How have you done that? I consider all the readers of the site to be “Chic Agents.” I encourage them to communicate on the site and my social media platforms, and some of them have been so passionate, they've reached out to even become contributors to the site. It has a lot to do with fully engaging the reader and making them feel like it's something not only that they indulge in, but they're a part of. I also do giveaways – that's a great way to engage people, get people excited, get them to spread the word. People love to win something and I try to give away things that I'd want to win if I was competing. Is there anything that you know now that you wish you knew when you first started? There are several things. One, I'd have to say that when it comes to the technology side of things, is usability. When I first started The Chic Spy, all I really cared about was creating a site that I loved the way it looked. I was getting my message out there and it was more about me when I first started my site. As I've evolved, I've learned you know what, it's not about me, it's about my reader and my site being user friendly. When the site first launched, I thought it was very user friendly because I worked in it all the time, but when I started doing surveys and then having people in the industry who are developers kind of play with it, they found it difficult. So, I figured if they are having a difficult time and they're developers, imagine what everyday people who just want to enjoy your content are experiencing. If it's going to take them forever to get to something, people are going to lose interest. They don't like to click several times – maybe one or two and that's it. If they have to search for something and it's complicated, you are going to lose people and that's the last thing I wanted to do. So, I had to do a full re-design, and when I did this, I had to keep in mind what was best for the user and of course, and figure out a way to meld my aesthetic with what would work the best for the user - and one important feature I learned they wanted and needed was mobile. I was finding that because of the demographic that I have, which is about 18-34, they were really using mobile a lot heavier, so it was imperative my site was responsive. Did you have all of your branding pre-planned or has it unfolded over time? I would say a little bit of both. When I first started out, I was this person who loved to plan everything. I did start out with a plan, but the key is flexibility and I've learned to be flexible over time. The usability is a prime example. There were some things I had to change, whether I was ready for that change or not. A plan is always good, it's like having a map. You want to have a direction that you're going in, but be willing to deviate. As for the brand and the Chic Spy theme, I like to compare it to a combination of Audrey Hepburn and James Bond. I knew that was kind of the premise when I first started out and I tried to stay true to that aesthetic and that idea but I knew that there were times when things would have to deviate in order for me to make this work and make this engaging for the reader. You've obviously figured out ways to monetize the site. Do you mind sharing some of the ways you've done that? Sure, that is something that I am continually coming up with ideas for ,but some of the mainstream ways that people monetize digital magazines, blogs, or online sites are from affiliate networks. I'm a member of a couple of affiliate networks. You can do something one-on-one with a brand or you can partner to have an advertisement layout. Do you have any favorite apps or any tools that you use for productivity, time management or marketing? One of the main concerns that I have as the publisher of a digital magazine is how to maintain my editorial calendar. That has been the bane of my existence for over a year now. I've tried countless apps and tools, but ultimately came back to Google Calendar. I have fallen in love with Google Calendar and I'm right now getting ready to launch a new editorial calendar platform for myself and my contributors. I have not found any limitations to how many calendars you can create, so what I love about it is there's apps where you can connect your content with your Google Calendar and to be able to manage it on your phone. What's next for Chic Spy? I've started doing photo shoots. I've just had my first photo shoot that came out on Labor Day. I'm really excited about it – I really feel that there's such a great space right now for online magazines and one of the things I want to do right now is meld what people might find in a print magazine with what people might also see on a blog. When you do events such as Fashion Weeks, how do you draw attention to The Chic Spy? How do you maximize those in person events and get people back to your site? Well, one of the things I do is kind of a small effort but it makes a big difference - I handout my business card. My business card has my character on it and it's kind of fun and it's designed to mimic what you might see an agent give someone. That was important for me because there are so many different events that I get invited to and it's not really cost effective. I decided I wanted a business card that would catch people's eye – that when it's in their wallet, in their clutch, wherever they decide to put it, it would be something that's more difficult to throw away. Connect with Mignon (aka The Chic Spy): www.TheChicSpy.com @thechicspy Instagram: The Chic Spy Email: editor@thechicspy.com This week's Biz Hack is slightly different than usual. Last month I attended Content Marketing World in Cleveland and got to interview some of the top content marketers. I asked them to either share a tip for entrepreneurs or a productivity hack, and wanted to share what they had to say: Success Tips from Content Marketing World. Get writing (Ian Cleary from Razor Social) Produce good content on your blog and let Google send you traffic. Use apps and GTD to get more done (Stephen Spencer, SEO expert, author and speaker) Use apps to help you get things done like Things, Omnifocus and breakdown your large projects in to tasks and those into categories. Block calendar time for personal projects (Amy Higgins, content and social manager at Concur) Block out sections on your calendar to get work done uninterrupted. Tool: Concur App to manage your expenses while traveling. Get out of your inbox (Chris Ducker, entrepreneur, author and founder of Virtual Staff Finder) Use a 3-click rule to get those messages out of your inbox quickly: 1. Reply or Forward, 2. Delete, or 3. Archive and move on with your life. Utilize DivvyHQ to manage content (Kim Higdon, social media manager at Off Madison Ave. Manage content marketing efforts and collaborate team wide using this online platform. Build your brand from the start (Heidi Cohen, chief content officer of Actionable Marketing Guide) Choose the details for your brand from the start of your business and stay consistent as your business grows. Use Evernote to create epic blog posts over time (Lee Odden, CEO of Top Rank Online Marketing) Have a few spare moments? Put your ideas into Evernote and add to it whenever you can. It's a great tool for organizing your ideas. Get up earlier to write great content (Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder of Orbit Media) Go to bed earlier, get up earlier and write something awesome before you look at your email and it will change your career.   Action Item: This week's action item is to choose one tip, tool or hack suggested in these interviews and give it a try.  Quote of the week: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” ~Mark Twain Next week we're in The Lab with Eric Wagner, founder of Mighty Wise Media and regular contributor to Forbes and Entrepreneur where he writes about the secrets of entrepreneurship. It's an amazing interview, so be sure to tune! Until next time, have prosperous week!

Wondering what people think about your products or services?    Why not ask your customers?   A few recent examples reminded me how valuable this is. From a restaurant offering a discount for providing feedback to an app that asked for testimonials in exchange for free prizes, these kinds of questions can provide you with invaluable information about your company.    It's not your customers' responsibility provide you with their reviews. It's your responsibility to ask.   SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/jaybaer00   SPROUT SOCIAL SHOUT OUT   Today's Sprout Social shout out goes to Heidi Cohen (http://twitter.com/heidicohen), a prolific writer and digital marketing professional who blogs at HeidiCohen.com.    OUR SPONSORS   Candidio (http://candidio.com), a simple and affordable video production company. Follow @candidio on Twitter.    Sprout Social (http://sproutsocial.com), a social media management and analytics company that Jay uses for much of his social media every day. Follow @sproutsocial on Twitter.   ABOUT JAY TODAY   Jay Today is a video podcast with 3-minute lessons and commentary on business, social media and digital marketing from New York Times best-selling author and venture capitalist Jay Baer. Join Jay daily for insights on trends, quick tips, observations and inspiration at http://bit.ly/JayToday.

Heidi Cohen stopped by the Social Media Pubcast to celebrate her 1,000th blog post. Heidi, who has been named to the Social Media Examiner Top 10 Social Media Blogs list two years running, had endless useful tips for struggling bloggers. Here are a few topics that were covered: 1,000 Posts and Lessons Learned Blogging Strategies: How many times per week and why? Avoiding Burnout And a few links that were mentioned: BoostBlogTraffic.com Social Media Engagement for Dummies by Eliza Sherman Youtility by Jay Baer Contagious by Jonah Berger Here's how you can find Heidi: HeidiCohen.com @HeidiCohen on Twitter Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review on iTunes!