Spring cleaning your blog can raise your blogging effectiveness, dramatically boosting your ROI. Cleaning up your content, tags and links will help to optimize SEO, as it offers you a second chance to proof your work.

You can perform the following steps weekly in just a few minutes, or set aside longer periods of time every quarter.

• Categories - When you start blogging, you should have developed multiple categories to match your content's topics. But over time, you'll likely fine-tune the categories you actually use, leaving those that aren't relevant untouched. When this happens, your readers might receive a 404 error, delivered when a user clicks on a category that leads to a blank screen. By cleaning up your unused categories, you'll increase performance. WordPress users can take advantage of a tool called WP CleanFix to make repairs or redirect users. Google can downgrade your site when a user receives too many error messages. Its Webmaster tools can help you find problematic pages.
• Alt tags - You can greatly improve SEO by making sure that the images you post on your blogs have Alt tags, a text descriptive feature for a graphic or image. Google gives high scores to pages that have images with an Alt tag.
• Content - Check for topics that have become outdated or are time sensitive, and update posts if possible. Maintaining relevant content for new users that join your blog will help keep your content relevant and authoritative.
• Links - As you add new posts, you'll want to go back and check previously posted material and link it to newer content. This action will help to boost your SEO by increasing effective internal links, and give readers access to similar content.
• Sidebars - The time it takes your pages to load will in part determine how easy it is to access information. Evaluate the number of relevant widgets you have on your page; removing those that aren't necessary will decrease page load time and help to feature other, more relevant tabs and widgets.

Cleaning up your tags, content and links will help to drive blogging effectiveness, creating a better user experience and boosting SEO.

As an HVAC contractor, you’re probably always looking for inexpensive, effective ways to get your message out to potential customers, to remind them when it’s time for preventive maintenance or a new furnace or A/C system or a duct-cleaning. Facebook can serve you well for this. It’s free. It’s easy to set up and manage. It’s heavily populated (800 million active users around the world). And it has a powerful little tool that you should know about: the Like button.

When customers find your Facebook page or your website and click the little rectangle that says Like on it, they launch an ongoing connection with you, an occasional reminder of your availability, skills and services. When you post an update, your customers will see it as they scroll through their Facebook feeds. Your customers’ Facebook friends will see your Like as a recommendation.

And when those customers and prospects have HVAC needs, that regular reminder may well translate into business for you.

How do you take advantage of this potentially profitable opportunity? Here are some ways HVAC contractors can use regular Facebook posts to build on their connections with customers:

• Keep it on schedule. Many contractors are too busy to create online posts. Assign the job to a savvy employee and create a schedule. Your posts should be fairly frequent — maybe a few times a week — but not so frequent that your company becomes an irritant. Your company can be Unliked, too.

• Keep it relevant and timely. This can’t be emphasized enough. Even if someone is familiar with your business, will he or she think of it when it’s time for service or preventive maintenance? During a cold spell, post a link to your recent blog post about furnace efficiency. If spring is in the air, post your coupon for annual air conditioner tuneups. Tailor your content to match the community’s HVAC needs and give them good reason to patronize you.

• Keep it interesting. Vary your posts. Offer an anecdote one day about that technician who pulled a cat out of a customer’s ductwork. Post photos of the rescue. The next day, present before and after shots of an especially filthy air filter or duct system. Offer industry-related trivia.

• Keep it worth your readers’ time. Give your Facebook connections an incentive to take a closer look. Offer information from a trusted, expert source — that’s you — such as quick HVAC tips and tricks that homeowners can do themselves. And throw in those discount offers or coupons occasionally.

• Keep it real. Facebook is a social forum, an online hub that your customers use to seek entertainment and information they care about. Your tone should be friendly and conversational and your posts short, understandable and to the point. Make your occasional sales pitches gently.

• Keep your website and blog in mind. Use Facebook to link to the content you already have. Proud of a new page on your website? Updated your blog? Post a link on Facebook.

• Keep the conversation moving. Respond to people who respond to you. As with your website and your blog — and your business itself — your Facebook presence is never finished. It is a work in perpetual progress. So don’t go silent.

• Keep it light sometimes. Be willing to share a laugh or an uplifting story with your customers. You never know what’s going to catch someone’s eye.

All of that is easy. The hard part is getting customers to your Facebook page and/or website where they can Like you. So include the Facebook logo and your Facebook page’s URL on your marketing and advertising materials and business cards. Remind employees to let people know that they can find you on Facebook.

If you haven’t already joined Facebook, click here to create your page. Be sure to add information under the Info tab; you can link to your own website and blog and tell customers more about you.

If you already have a Facebook page, consider improving it. Don’t have a Like button on your website? Facebook provides instructions here. If you haven’t updated lately, take another look, as Facebook is constantly making changes.

For such a tiny little button, Facebook’s Like tool packs a punch. As you become a part of your customers’ online interaction, you’re more likely to be on their minds when they have HVAC needs. Do it right, and you’ll like the way Facebook can drive business to you.Share and Enjoy:

Sometimes I get the feeling that many contractors believe social media is a passing fad at best – or a waste of time at worst.

In reality, social media can — and does — generate the HVAC sales leads that contractors need in order to grow. More people join the social media universe every day. And it’s your job to meet them there. Social media should be a vital component of your marketing strategy. It takes a different mentality to be successful in social media than any other marketing you’ve done in the past.

We know that consumers look online first for information about potential purchases – even before they know they’re in the market for products or services. That also goes for new parents wondering how they’ll eventually pay for college – long before they invest in a 529 Plan. Same goes for migraine sufferers seeking relief – months before they talk to the doctor about a new medication.

And the same goes for homeowners wondering why their furnaces are making funny noises – long before they trade them in for newer, more energy-efficient systems.

So catch HVAC sales leads right then and there – online, via social media sites, as your prospects begin to educate themselves on their purchases-to-be. Whether you make your connection through your HVAC blog, your business page on Facebook or your posts on Twitter, those connections can translate into sales leads.

That new heat pump – it was purchased from and installed by the HVAC contractor whose blog posts – titled, perhaps, “Your Aging Furnace: Repair or Replace?” and, “5 Reasons Heat Pumps Save Money” – helped that noisy-furnace owner determine that it was time for an upgrade. Those blog posts offered something useful and relevant to that customer: a local, certified contractor’s expertise, minus any hard sell.

Each post also included a “call to action” – an invitation to contact a technician or fill out an online form for a quote, for example – making it easy for the customer to take the relationship further. Even better, it possibly included a sign up to receive the contractor’s “Energy Savings Monthly eNewsletter” so that the homeowner could continue to learn directly from the contractor.

That’s the magic of great content…when homeowners actually request to receive your marketing on a consistent basis.

Creating an HVAC blog is one great way to use social media to enhance your company’s position as your community’s foremost provider of equipment and service – and to turn online leads into sales. But don’t stop there. Here are some tips for using social media to generate HVAC sales leads:

Widen your net by joining groups – and participating in them. To reach new leads, you need to break into new networks of people. Social networking sites do a terrific job of bringing together people with shared qualities and interests.

What qualities or interests might be shared by your potential leads? Start with a group search on LinkedIn, perhaps joining an online network of folks who work in the building industry or who belong to local homeowners’ associations. Pushing energy-efficient products? Join a green energy group on Facebook. When you write a relevant blog post about solar water heaters, put a link on the green group’s wall.

Widen your net by tapping your colleagues’ groups. Encourage your staff to post your company’s social media content from their own accounts, which will reach whole new networks of people in your community. Some people spend more time on Twitter than on LinkedIn. Others use Google+ rather than Facebook.

Invest in your online relationships. Extend the same courtesy and professionalism to potential online leads that you’d offer in person. If a reader leaves a comment or question on your blog, respond promptly. When someone starts to follow you on Twitter, follow them back. Found something relevant to post on Facebook? Credit the source by tagging the contributor in your post. With each online interaction, you build your standing with potential HVAC sales leads (not to mention expanding your reach online, leading you to more potential leads).

Think real estate. Sometimes an easy way to think about your social media exposure is to liken it to real estate. The more active you can be on social media, the more places you can be found on the web. This creates an online asset for you, just like if you were buying a property with a good possibility to grow in value over time.

As social media changes and grows, customers will continue to use it, as well as search engines, to gather information, make decisions and make connections. You should be using social media too, to tap a rich source of HVAC sales leads and relationships.Share and Enjoy:

To make a blog worth the time and money you put into it, businesses must make blog marketing a priority. If you thought just putting your blog out there was enough, you're wrong.

Successful businesses should attract attention — the right kind of attention — to make a blog work. A blog will help to generate leads and increase sales, but as with any product, it's not enough to just "create." To succeed, you have to market, too.

Blog marketing isn't any different from standard marketing in principle, but you do need to use different tools.

• Attract the right audience: To gain a wider audience for your blog, you need readers who will be likely to share your posts. As you cast a wide net with your blog, you want that net to overlap with social media users, specifically targeting those users who are most active. Developing posts that challenge commonly held beliefs or using striking graphics or videos help to accomplish this goal.
• Participation: Just like grade school, part of your blog's "grade" depends on your interaction with your community. Here, it's important to know how your target consumer thinks and acts in order to fine tune your message, and then actively participate in conversations going on in other blogs, social media outlets and forums.
• Strategize your content: It's worth saying over and over that your blog should be search engine optimization (SEO) friendly. With billions of daily Google searches, failing to use SEO principles puts you out of the running to attract a portion of those searches to your blog site.
• Use social media: Linking your blog to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn gives their users the opportunity to share your content with over one billion users, or potential customers. It takes time to optimize social media tools. But leveraging the traffic on these sites by studying patterns and how consumers respond to you will pay off in the end.

Without strategic marketing, your blog will be like another ad posted in Time's Square. Effective blog marketing will attract attention to your products and services, uniquely positioning your business for success.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

How can a digital book help your business? Let’s check out the benefits:

Content creation is easy
It might seem like a chore or impossible to create enough content to be interesting, but most businesses don’t realize that if they have a blog, they already have content that can be the contents of a digital book. The wording shouldn’t be verbatim, but ideas can be explained further in book form than in a blog.

Setting up the layout is easy, too
Because of the huge surge of digital books, a lot of programs have been created that make the process of creating chapters, formatting paragraphs, and doing layout design easy for anyone to pick up. These programs are also mostly free to use, too.

They can be read on several different platforms
You know how some programs work on a Windows desktop, but not on a Mac desktop? And how some apps can be used on an iPad but not a Kindle? Well, a PDF-formatted e-book can be read on multiple platforms easily without formatting or downloading issues.

Many options of sharing
When a company decides to publish a digital book, there are many options to consider for marketing: free download, opt-in download or even selling it for a small fee. Digital books can also be great for email campaigns.

Publishing is unlimited
You don’t need a big name publishing house to distribute your digital book; you can simply self-publish. There are many options out there; businesses can self-publish dozens of digital books.

More advertising through others
When you’re published, bloggers can review your digital book and spread the word even further. Or you could personally contact bloggers and reach out to them, letting them know about your product and asking nicely for a review. There are limitless opportunities with e-books, so start writing!

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To stay clear of problems, use these tips:

• Never pass off content as your own if it doesn’t belong to you. Content marketing rests upon your reputation, and you could get into serious trouble by building your authority on the shoulders of someone else’s reputation. You should value the “currency” of your reputation, and only take credit for content that you produce.
• Use links the right way. If you need to use content you haven’t produced, give credit where credit is due. Deep links are valuable, and the law does not prohibit deep linking to someone else’s blog or website; however, if you don’t give credit to that owner, you are violating the law.
• Graphics are not exempt. It’s generally appealing — and valuable — to add graphics to your blog; however, graphics also fall under copyright laws. The best way to avoid problems is to ask permission before using graphics or source them from free sites like Flickr or low-cost sites like istockphoto.
• Ask. If you want to use someone else’s content, just ask — nicely. Most bloggers, writers and businesses will generally allow a link to their content; after all, a deep link will benefit them. Requesting permission fully protects you from copyright infringement, and it’s the best practice for giving sources credit.
• Use the right sources. If you need to access truly free information for your blog, make sure it’s sourced from a service that provides free content. Several Internet ventures have joined forces to do just that: Through “creative commons,” sites such as Picasa, Scribd and Wikemedia Common allow free use of their materials, without citing.

Your blog is an ideal format to generate free information for your customers, increasing your authority, furthering your brand and generating leads. But what once was a free for all is now just as regulated by copyright laws as any other form of media and print materials.

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How can you make this happen? By:

• Creating a blog. Update visitors with news about your business and publish content relevant to the interests of your existing and potential customers. The more content you provide, the more opportunities other websites have to create inbound links.
• Using social media. Share your content on networks such as Google+, Twitter and Facebook. Provide buttons that encourage visitors to share your website content.
• Exchanging links with other sites that have content related to your company. This will boost your site’s rank and expose your website to new sales opportunities.
• Providing content for blogs or other sites that focuses on topics relevant to your business. Many blogs and websites allow you to add an inbound link to your site within a guest post.
• Offering free downloads in exchange for inbound links. Depending on your business, this may be content such as a free ebook, software or other digital products.
• Creating an affiliate program for your products or services. Other websites can post an affiliate link to your website and earn a small commission on successful sales.
• Submitting your website link to online directories. Directory sites such as DMOZ.org and SoMuch.com allow you to list your website link under specific categories. Some directories may require payment or a reciprocal link.
• Encouraging visitors to link to your site. They may even link to your site automatically, especially if your content is strong and related to their interests.

By publishing useful content and connecting to visitors, bloggers and webmasters, you can build a network of organic inbound links to your business website. Along with social media networking, this will increase your traffic, online exposure and search engine placement, allowing your website to flourish over time.

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Unless you’re a full-time blogger who generates revenue solely from advertising on your blog, you probably have limited time to spend on developing your posts. However, your blog can be a valuable marketing tool. So how can you get the most from it without taking time away from other important projects?

Two keys to a successful blog are high-quality content and timely information. Follow these five tips to generate good content efficiently and quickly:

1. Get organized - Half the battle of generating blog content is thinking of new topics. Develop an editorial calendar each month with daily or weekly content ideas. You can also just keep a running list of blog ideas so that whenever you sit down to write a new piece you can just refer to the topics you have already created.
2. Read the news - Google really likes fresh content on breaking news topics. Find news that relates to your industry and write about it — ideally, as soon as possible after the news breaks.
3. Get graphic - While some topics warrant lengthy descriptions, others lend themselves to visual commentary. Creating infographics or videos that clearly answer a question or explain a common problem can not only save you writing time, but it will also engage your readers in a totally different way.
4. Schedule posts - While this will not work for news topics or other content that is time-sensitive, writing posts that are relevant no matter when they are published and scheduling them for future publication can help you keep the flow of new material more regular.
5. Outsource writing - Even if you follow these tips to create blog content more efficiently, you still may not have time to dedicate to writing. Hiring a professional blog writer or content marketing service will ensure that your blog gets the attention it deserves. Professional blog writers also have experience writing SEO-optimized content, meaning that search engines are more likely to find your blog posts and include them in search results.

If outsourcing seems like a good solution for your business blog, contact us at SocialTract to learn how we can help.

Blog image via Shutterstock.

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Like any industry, the HVAC industry is full of jargon. But because heating and cooling contractors dwell in a world of mechanics, efficiency ratings and evolving technology, the HVAC industry can be even more confusing than many to typical homeowners. To a prospect who is new to the world of heating efficiency, “annualized fuel utilization efficiency” sounds as foreign as “blunging” might sound to an HVAC contractor. (Potters, of course, know that blunging refers to – the process of mixing clay and water.)

Here’s where your HVAC blog comes in. Your blog offers an excellent opportunity to translate industry jargon into clear language that prospects can understand quickly. Break down complex or confusing topics into pieces, explain them in plain English, and you’ve gone a long way toward winning over one more customer — and toward establishing your HVAC contracting company as the go-to source for expert information in your community.

This isn’t to suggest that your customers aren’t intelligent. In fact, any reader who catches a whiff of condescension on your HVAC blog will move on quickly. But online readers have good questions, and they are looking for good answers. The online source that provides information most clearly is the one they’ll read — and return to later when they have more questions. And good content is content that puts readers first.

Here are some tips for eliminating jargon and other reader-unfriendly obstacles in your HVAC blog — and for creating content that offers a real benefit to the current and potential customers who find you online:

• Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. As you embark on a topic for your blog, ask yourself: What does this mean in the end for the customer? As an HVAC contractor, you might be dazzled by the technology of the latest solar-ready hot water heater. To a homeowner, it’s a piece of equipment that means smaller utility bills and reliably hot water. Or, from your perspective, you’re selling a furnace. From your customer’s perspective, he or she is making a major investment in a reliable source of warmth and comfort for the whole family. Use your HVAC blog to convey what is important to the customer.

• Make it human. While always remaining professional, your HVAC blog should also reflect the fact that it is produced by a local company run by real people. How to accomplish that? Maintain a conversational tone. Again, translate jargon into plain language. And strive toreflect the people and community you serve. If your region is experiencing its ninth day of subzero weather, take note of that as you write a post about heating efficiency. If your new technician’s quick fix of an elderly customer’s thermostat inspired a grateful note, write about that, too.

• Get to the point. Customers can get their chit-chat elsewhere. From your HVAC blog, they want useful information. Don’t “back in” to your post with slightly relevant chatter. Instead, make your point right off the bat, letting readers know what they stand to gain by reading your post. Edit carefully, cutting out redundancies. It’s much better to offer a truly informative 200-word post than a 400-word post that risks wasting your potential customers’ time.

• Break it down. Sure, you could go on for hours about ductwork. Resist the urge. Divide big topics into smaller, manageable topics. Write one short post about duct sealing. Write another about duct cleaning. Write a third about duct insulation. You will make it easier for readers seeking specific information to find the answers they need. You’ll also reduce the risk of information overload.

• Break it down some more. We know that online readers like to scan content to quickly locate and digest the information they’re seeking. Use bullets, subheads, numbered lists and concise paragraphs to offer bite-sized pieces of information.

• Make your HVAC blog accessible in terms of design, too. Less is more: eliminate clutter, and make your blog easy to navigate. Offer a good search feature so readers can easily find past posts on other HVAC topics.

There’s a point to all of this. Your HVAC blog should be playing a leading role in your overall marketing strategy. After all, we know that your current and future customers are online; blogs offer a way to create quality, consistent and useful content to meet them there. But to take the relationship beyond that first glance, your content has to keep them reading — and that requires content that prioritizes your customers and their needs.

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Tumblr demographics
Approximately half of the people who use Tumblr are under 25, and many in that group are teenagers or college students. That demographic could be perfect for your business. Or not. That said, the service hosts more than 45 million blogs, so the other half of users over age 25 numbers in the millions.

Tumblr features
One of the best things about using Tumblr for your blog is its ease of use. You can do your work from a user-friendly dashboard or add posts from a smartphone app, email or text message. You can even call in an audio post. In addition to these convenient posting options, you may find these other attributes useful:

• Design - Choose from hundreds of free themes or create one to match your brand identity.
• Versatility - Unlike Facebook and Twitter (which mainly focus on short comments) or a traditional blog (whose content is generally wordier), Tumblr lets you have the best of both worlds.
• Descriptive domains - You can choose your own domain. This is not only great for SEO, but it also makes your blog site look more professional.
• Search Engine Optimization - Using built-in SEO tools, you can shape your blog so that it snags better search engine rankings. Potential customers will be able to find your blog more easily.
• Free - And free really means free. There are no ads or unwanted links on your page. It’s all yours and it’s totally free.
• Social integration - You can set up your blog to automatically post to Twitter and Facebook. Save a few extra steps while reaching a broader audience.

No matter which blog platform you choose, content marketing remains the same: You need high-quality posts on a regular basis. But find the tools that best suit your needs.Share and Enjoy: