the blogs I posted on

1. http://socialmediamilieu.blogspot.com/

2. http://eduardorandom.blogspot.com

3. http://mattsmindcsit.blogspot.com/

Newsletters, are they right for you and how often should I use them?

   I have not used newsletters, yet. I have read a little into them now and feel like I understand them better. I tend to look at business's news letters as a annoyance, but there are times I do check them out. If I check one of these newsletters out, then these emails are a success. you could be sending newsletters out to tons of potentional customers who might then read your newest info or buy your newest products. It can only really increase your business. If a person opts out it is no loss and if a person opts in well your customer base just grew.

   Now, for my business, I would do a newsletter once a month. I am more of a news and part training type website. The more people subscribe and check my website out the better. I would want to create a newsletter as a highlight reel of the month, so customers who might be interested in something they missed can head over to the website and read up on it.

   In my newsletter, I would try to do a highlight of this month gone by. I would do a layout like a magazine with tiled section talking about the different areas of my website. For example, I would have a MechWarrior Online LearnTheGame which would show one of our big training programs this month on mechwarrior. Then MechWarrior Online News. Showing a brief synopsis of what was the biggest changes this month for Mechwarrior. all of these would have a read more button which would link to that page. I would also have Elder Scrolls Online news, Defiance News, Defiance Training, league of legends training and League of legends news. Each showing the biggest article of the month with a tab to read more. It would almost look like a front page of the newspaper, but instead of a page number you go to you would click the "Read More" button. I would also have a subscribe to website button at the top, so they could become a Krimson member.

Blogging the right direction? what categories to use to stay organized and hit my target.

   My blog would be on gaming. I would be talking about three games that I would be focusing on and I would really want to stick with these games. I tend to get distracted with other games and want to talk about them, but that is why I would want my categories on the games I am focused on. I definitely would want the name of the games in my categories so I would have a better chance for people finding mine. I also would want to put in what I am talking about in these blogs in relation to the game For example, I would say the  game name and News together.

   The categories the I would choose for my gaming blog would be first, Defiance News. Defiance is one of the games I am focusing on and I would want to try to talk about the newest things going on in the game. It would hopefully be great for my target audience because I am sure people are searching for defiance news. The next name would be Defiance How to's? I would talk about in each blog how to do something in the game I found out. There are always people searching how to do a particular thing in a game and it would help them find out. Plus, there are always new tricks I learn in games that I would love to share. I would do the same for my other two games, Mechwarrior Online and Elder Scrolls Online. This would help me keep focused on what I care about and hopefully bring my target audience to my blog.

Being Personal in Blogs

Today, I am going to discuss being personal in blogs and specificly my blog. Now, every business is different, which I know is a generic answer, but some businesses can't really get personal. In my business, I am doing game reviews and game teaching, so in some cases it is good to show passion and some cases its not.

For my blog, When I am doing training for a game, it is very important to show some personality and show that you care. People want to know you care about the games your playing and you should show it. Alternatively, I also do game reviews and in my game reviews I try not to show my personality or bias, as much as  I can. The person watching wants a factual review of the game. As I was saying earlier, it really depends on your business and what your trying to portray. If your representing your business and they don't have any specific stands, you do not want to put your own personality to represent it, that could portray your company in a bad light.

Twitter Advanced Search and what I found

   I used three functions in advanced search to get what I want. I used the "all of these words" option and put Gaming community, because I am looking for people that want to play, talk and  hang out with fellow gamers. I used "any of these words" function to try to help narrow it down to the games that we play and help teach with. I used the words MechWarrior, Elder Scrolls, and Defiance. Finally, I used the language function to narrow to English only, because I only read English. These results got me exactly what I was looking for in my community.

   I found many results. Most of the results I found were people or experts I was looking for. I followed a couple of people who were interested in communities in these games. I, also added some gaming news twitters that were related to the games we talk about. Over all I found it to be a great success and hope I draw people into the community I am trying to create.



 

Gaming review Businesses Using Visual Social Media

    I found two websites that are doing similar things that my business is doing. They are doing reviews for many different games. The first one is IGN.com, now they don't have the gaming community I am working for, but they are doing the reviews and training similar to what I do. IGN is using Youtube to distribute a lot of there videos. It is highly effect. They have over 86,000 views just on there most recent video which came out 2 days ago and 2500 comments.

   The next website I found doing similar things to me is Gamespot. They are also doing gaming reviews and learning videos, but like the other website, they are not really creating a gaming community. They have also decided to use Youtube to show there video reviews and learning videos. They also have been very effective. There video from yesterday has over 13000 views and 300 comments. They were not as effective as IGN, but they definitely are successful.

The Visual Networks - Do they work for you?

     I would find it hard to believe that any company would not want to use any visual networks. It is a great way to get your company out there or get a message across. Most people engage with a image or video much quicker then they would a paragraph like the one I am doing now. I think Visual networks are great for my brand especially videos.

     There are four major players in the visual networks, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest. They are all very popular and have there own benefits. YouTube alone has 490 million Users. That is a lot of potential people around the world that have access to your videos. Youtube is a great way to show services. People can see that your a real person and you care about your product or service. You can show them what you do and how you do it. Instagram is a fun way to tell stories with your pictures. You can unveil a new product, show off a event taking place or slowly show your work coming together. Pinterest is a great way to share between services and products that go hand and hand through pictures. You can link great photos of games your looking forward to check out and pin photos of gaming shots you have taken in recent times to peak peoples interest. Finally Tumblr, which is like a blog in photos. You have a beautiful visual medium to keep people up to date on what you want to let them know.

     I am creating a community for gamers. To teach, to learn and to win together. We really want to bring everyone together. I think all these Visual networks are great and have amazing potential for my business. At this moment, the best one for me is Youtube for many reasons. For one, I am trying to teach people how to play different games. It is easiest and most appealing for people to be taught through a video, which I am already doing. I can also show teasers of what is to come in the future. Guys tend to respond best to videos also which is part of my target market at the moment also. Everyone loves visuals, you just need to find which one conveys your message the best.