My time with FYIndOut is coming to a close today, and I wanted to reach out and say goodbye. To all our readers – I appreciate every second of time you spend on our blog. I hope you enjoyed everything I’ve produced for you as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Although I will no longer be a weekly contributor to this blog, I will still be making my presence known. Look for my input in occasional guest posts and among the comment section. The FYIndOut team is incredible, and I will miss my place in the company very much.

As a final installment of what I hope you considered good rules to work by, I’m offering my top 6 takeaways from my time at FYIndOut:

1. It’s never about selling your company. It’s about building your relationships.
2. Everyone needs information, and giving means getting. Share any nugget of knowledge you can for the benefit of the masses.
3. Nothing beats great content with an automatic takeaway.
4. Be as viral as possible. Marketing doesn’t require deep pockets. Be creative, be innovative, and be web 2.0 savvy.
5. Connect with the people your audience already trusts. They are the ones who will offer dynamite input for your company that will be listened to and shared.
6. Social media is the bomb diggity.

In case we haven’t already connected on Twitter, lets do it now. Follow me @CAGarland.

Thanks for everything FYIndOut!

Keep reading everyone. I know I will.

(Roscoe with Dead End Sign by Zoomar)

It’s hard to make a blog truly great when people are talking about the same thing as you all over the blogosphere. To see success against all the competition, stay focused. Blogs are great for building traffic and providing content. But people need a reason to come read your stuff. Make sure blogs have a subject and stick to it. Blogs without a goal are useless to readers, especially when the content genre being published varies each time it goes up. Make a blogging strategy and follow some simple steps to make the most of your product:

• Brain Storm – Figure out who your customer is? What do they like, and why are they interested in what you do? Then, take that person and create a blog that makes sense for them. Think about what they would want to read about, and write about it.

• Tag and Promote – Always tag your posts. Remember that tagging is the only way that people will navigate to your blog from a different platform like Google or Technorati. Then be sure that while you let search engines do their thing, you simultaneously use your website to promote the blog. Start talking about it with your customers, in your emails and on your newsletters. Get on your companies twitter account (your company does have a twitter account doesn’t it?) and tweet your posts each time a new one goes up.

• Plan – It’s tempting to wait to decide what your post is going to be on until you sit down to write it…but that’s a dangerous game. Plan your blog posts at least a week before they are going up so you have some time to think about them and get the idea brewing.

• Pay attention to Comments – Promote commenting on your blog, and follow up on comments when people leave them. Always thank people for their input, and if necessary respond. Connecting with comment leavers will considerably improve their chances of coming back.

• Be Consistent – Pick days that you will be putting up new posts and stick to that schedule. Decide on a minimum number of posts you are going to put up a week, and stick to that number. Your readers will expect new posts regularly. Don’t let them down.

(Photo Calender by Mike (Inbet_1979))

There is no excuse to not follow current events. Choose the platform of your choice – radio, TV, news sites, blogs – and take a ½ hour everyday to fill yourself in.

Knowing what media is talking about is crucial to your businesses pitches. You should never run the risk of sending out a story that will be pushed under the radar. For example, it’s probably less than wise to pitch something the day of a State of the Union Address, or a few days after.

But it is a good idea to pitch a money saving venture when there is talk about the poor economy. Learning to time your business with what the rest of the country, or world, is talking about is crucial to success. Look for themes in the news; know what’s coming up and plan when the right time for your story is based on when it will be a benefit.

It’s also important to keep track of which journalists are talking about what. When pitching an idea you need to hone in on the right journalist, the one that you already know has an interest in your business and story because they already write about it.

Start logging journalists and following the work of the one you want to write about your pitch. They’ll appreciate you knowing what they’ve been talking about when you contact them. Even better, now that almost all news sources have commenting and sharing abilities, you have the opportunity for journalist to appreciate you before they know you have a great story for them. Start promoting their stories by commenting, posting their articles on Twitter and linking to them in your blog.

Finally, it should go without saying that current events are conversations. You can’t talk to someone in media if you don’t know what they’ve been talking about. Nor can you successfully attend social events without humiliation. So in case you don’t already have your favorite news source in your reader, it’s time to add it.

(Photo Paparazzi by elbelgasturiano)

Join the Conversation: A major part of social media entails people interacting having conversations. Once a specific strategy is configured and responsibilities are delegated, just dive in!  You can read and prepare forever, once you have a basic understanding (with a little guidance) just start!  Transparency and honesty is very important, word travels quick on the web.

Commenting: The best way to get Press:  Nothing feels better to a blogger than when someone reads their material and more so comments, genuinely.  Why? Their readers have 133 Million other blogs to choose from, and chooses them.  Which means that the blog better be very good and provide a great deal of value.

To reinforce this theory: The best way to establish relationships and get good press with bloggers is to interact, comment and give opinions.  It’s perfectly fine to disagree, respectfully of course.  Have an idea? Tell them!  In this case, think like Dale Carnegie, The most important thing to a person is their name.  You should be thinking: “How can I help them, would they like this, I need to share this!”  Consistent commenting and relationship building will lead to posts on great press and then increased sales.

Sharing: The nuts and bolts of Social Media; it would not be as effective if people couldn’t easily share content and information on multiple social platforms.  Don’t be afraid to suggest readers to share this and comment!

So, whats your favorite relationship building tips?

(Picture :http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/u114/conversation.jpg)

Contests are a great way to promote your B2B brand. If you are willing to look around, contests of all genres and sizes are on the web, with typically little to no annoying requirements for entry. Entering contests is a great business venture. It gives you the opportunity to try your company out against competitors. You can see who your competition is and what they are doing. You’ll learn how to improve your product against competitors, and you will get pain free company promotion.

Winning a contest, or placing in one, make great bragging rights. Every customer wants to hear that their company of choice is the best, and these simple web entry contests can help you get that. Sometimes these contests will also give you the opportunity to include you customers by asking them to vote for you. It’s marketing, PR, branding and customer relationship building all rolled into one.  If nothing else, look for contest that provide financial incentive for the purpose of helping your company grow.

We recommend keeping track of contests, even if your company isn’t ready to enter them. Start a spreadsheet and spend a little time each week researching what contests are going on. Keep track of the information and sign up for emails, maybe next year your company will be ready for it.

Only enter contests that are relevant to your business, and be careful not to overdo it. Analyze the contests before entering them. You don’t need to be in every single one. Of course, as Mom and Dad always told you, if you don’t win its not the end of the world. Take losing as a business learning experience. Make improvements based on the companies you saw rank in the top, then come back and try again.

(Photo fly (relay race anchormen part 3) by Shenghung Lin)