That’s the advice from ProBlogger founder Darren Rowse. Your content has to engage the reader, and you have to build a community of people that respects your style and looks to you for more than just simple information.

“Content plus branding plus ads plus seo plus marketing plus link bait plus design equals successful blogging. Not necessarily. What I found to be true is that it’s really where the heart and the smart come together.”

Here are some key tips for blogging from the heart:

• Passion: “If you want an engaged readership you need to be engaged with your readers and your readers need to be engaged with each other.”  Successful blogs have writers and an audience that are all truly interesting in the topics they cover.
• Tell Stories:  This is all about being unique to your readers.  When you tell stories to your audience, it creates engagement.  “Write the type of posts that create memories with your readers.”
• Build Community: Remember, everyone can provide information.  Do something more.
• Inspire People: “When you inspire, something amazing happens on your blog. The inspiration can motivate your readers. Inspire people first, then inform.”
• Be Personal:  A good way to build you brand is to bring your own life into your blog.
• Be Playful
• Be Yourself
• But remember to be useful.  “If you can help people solve their problems, you are blogging from the heart.”

Blogging from the heart is important, but it’s not everything. It’s about being smart.

“I began to hear a spectrum of disillusionment. People think that if you blog from the heart, good things will happen to you. But blogging from the heart is not enough.

If you want to be a business with your blog, treat it as one today.”

To do this, Rowse says you have to define what “success” means to you. You have to have a plan for what you want your blog to achieve in one year, in five years, and beyond. You have to focus on branding, which can be thought of as “what you want people to say about you when you’re not in the room.”

How can you grab an audience and keep them? It’s about “hooks.”

“How are you going to make readers stick to your blog? It may mean some sort of social media. Perhaps the biggest hook is email or Twitter or rss or Facebook or Flickr. What do you want your readers to do? We know that if we can get people to subscribe to our email and signup for our Twitter or Facebook, then we have them hooked.”

In the end, don’t be afraid to try new things.

“Experiment, test and tweak. I am constantly trying new things. I had this crazy idea of trying to write 31 posts in 31 days. It had a very positive response. We then put this together in an e-book, which was our first product. We have now sold over $300,000 worth of our e-books.”

How would you define a social business? Please share your opinion.

According to Michael Brito, the Senior Vice President of Social Business at Edelman Digital, a business that uses social media to communicate with their customers has a social brand but is not necessarily a social business. In his recently released book Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization, he explains that a social business has a strong social infrastructure.

“It’s the difference between the internal communications versus the external communications,” he said. “An organization cannot have effective and meaningful conversations with customers unless they are having effective and meaningful conversations with each other.”

Brito went to say that a social business involves more than a business just “saying” they believe in social. The business has to actually demonstrate social behavior and create a social culture within the business. Brito told us that it should start with the leaders of the company. For instance, if the executive team practices social behavior, then it will extend naturally to the other departments.

Another way a business can truly become a social business is by knowing which departments to delegate social actions to. More often than not, social is handed off to the PR or marketing departments. However, Brito believes that it should be everyone’s job that wants it. He did point out that a business should have a specific governing team that creates policies and makes sure that everyone doing social is communicating with one another.

Also in regards to policies, Brito told us that a business should have a policy in place before the business begins branding with social media. These policies help businesses convey what employees can and can’t do on social sites.

“The policy is going to help guide the behaviors of the organization,” he said. “It has to be built around trust.”

Incidentally, Deb Schultz, a partner with the Altimeter Group, spoke with us last year at the BlogWorld Expo and offered some advice for creating a social media policy. She said that businesses have to remember to keep the policy simple and understand that it would be changing over time.

Once a business has incorporated a social infrastructure and a social media policy, this is when it should actually begin social branding. Although it’s easy to create a Facebook page or Twitter account, marketing with social media is not necessarily easy. The biggest challenge for many businesses is simply the amount of time it takes to do it effectively.

Interestingly, Brito told us that if a business cannot add any value to the conversation, it should not waste its time doing it.

“If you can add value to the conversation in a way that’s going to add value to either your customers, or analysts, or journalists, or people who are interested in your products, then that’s where you have the opportunity to create some really compelling content that’s not just pushing your brand or pushing your products,” he said.

On a side note, he also pointed out that businesses should not forget about Google and the power of search. He advises brands to create content that will help them own real estate on the search engine.

So, do you have a social business or a social brand?

WebProNews is partnering with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. BlogWorld takes place November 3-5 in Los Angeles and includes speakers such as Michael Brito. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

GroupMe is one of the leading apps of this type.  Today they announced via their blog:

Today, we’re thrilled to announce another awesome feature of the GroupMe platform-Featured Groups. Starting today, we’re partnering with five amazing brands to help them connect with fans and bring some exciting, exclusive benefits to GroupMe users. They’re like private fan clubs for the things you love.

Since people often times forms groups based on events, bands and TV shows, GroupMe decided to specifically target those tendencies.  Users can create their own messaging groups or join larger groups centered around these featured topics.

The first five featured groups are: Bad Girls Club, America’s Best Dance Crew, Bon Jovi, Bonnaroo and Coachella.  There are incentives for joining a featured group instead of simply creating a normal group and talking about these featured things.  Group members will have access to insider information and promotions.  For example, America’s Best Dance Crew groups will be provided with insider blog posts, behind the scenes videos as well as the chance to chat with some of the actual crew members as they will join specific fans’ groups.  Coachella fans will be the first to know about any lineup changes and Bon Jovi group members will be automatically entered in prize giveaways.

This begs the question, GroupMe users are regularly chatting it up about Bon Jovi?  Is GroupMe trying to target the aging 80′s fanatic demographic?

Although the jury is out on the buzz that can be created by Bon Jovi, there is great potential for GroupMe users to have some fun interactions with other bands, shows, films and events in the future.  There is obviously great potential for money to be made as well.  It would be interesting to know what GroupMe will charge to put something on its featured group list.  And how much marketing will be allowed to members of the featured groups?  Brands will have to strike some sort of delicate balance between no marketing and inundating users with T-shirt discount offers.

"People want to be treated like they’re human," he said. "They want to receive a response sometimes. They maybe want to be retweeted…Everyone’s a person, whether you’re a celebrity or not, everyone is a person, so just treat them like that. Listen to their thoughts if you can. Just make sure that you’re not just putting messages out there and never responding to people, if you can help it."

There is a lot to be said for simply taking the time to acknowledge your followers. When you have a lot of them it can be tricky to engage with all of them as much as you’d like, but the more you can do this, the better you represent your brand, and the more their likely to think of you. 

It doesn’t hurt to give them a little something extra every now and then either. "Fans also want access," O’keefe adds. "They want behind-the-scenes things, like if you do something with your fans to get them backstage or even showing them pictures from behind-the-scenes or video from behind-the-scenes… that’s a popular thing and it’s a good thing to do because one of the reasons they’re following you is just to hear about what you’re doing with your day…they want freebies…free downloads, free knowledge…free things that you can provide them."

He continues, "It’s not that hard. I think we make it harder than it is, but there are a lot of people who wonder how to do that…"

Giving Back to the Community

Of course there is more to social media than Twitter and Facebook. You might have your own community, whether that be a blog with a consistent readership or an online forum. The main thing to keep in mind is that you need to give people a reason to come back.

"It first starts by offering some sort of value," says O’Keefe. "Value’s always the question….What’s value? Value can be any number of things. It can be the content of the site. It can be the environment. I’m big on building a specific environment and having a specific tone and attitude for the community. Your community’s not for everyone so being unique in some way – that’s a big value point, and you need to attract people through the normal ways people attract people to websites. An online community is just a website, so you need to have a good thing and make sure search engines can spider it, and then you’ll receive a lot of search engine traffic…"

Again though, communication isn’t a one-way street. Don’t just put your message out there and not interact with the community. "If you only have three members, treat those members really well, so they understand that you appreciate them being here…you interact with them – you discuss with them," advices O’keefe. "You build three, then you get to six…you build one by one and sometimes it’s fast. Sometimes it’s slow, but you have to have the long-term commitment to build it one at a time, and continually add additional value and encourage discussion…You need to make sure there is something taking place on your site."

Never forget the social aspect of social media. While your main goal may be to broadcast your own message or your own content, there won’t be many people left to receive that message if you ignore them and don’t treat them like the people they are.

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Social media is great for monitoring your online reputation, but it also opens up doors for hurting it. That’s not just because your brand is vulnerable to criticism. Sometimes, even your most loyal fans may unintentionally damage your brand. 

Patrick O’Keefe, owner of the iFroggy Network brought up some good points on this subject in a recent interview with WebProNews. "From following a lot of music artists and from even writing about a lot of them, I find that there are some that will do things like for example, if somebody says something negative about them, they’ll retweet it, and then of course their fans, which can sometimes number hundreds of thousands, just go in on that person – like really attack them – really say nasty things at this person – like all day. Their Twitter stream fills up all of a sudden."

"These are people who are used to receiving maybe a few replies a day," he explains. "All of a sudden the celebrity’s entire fan base is just coming down on them."

"So I think you need to be aware that there are fans out there who will take it too far, and it’s not your responsibility, but they will do it in your name," O’Keefe continues. "So they do tarnish your brand, and the record industry is a good example, where you have fans of artists who get angry when the artist’s record isn’t put out in time, so they inundate the label with phone messages."

"Now some would say that’s a good thing in some cases because it gets attention, but some would say it’s a bad thing because it annoys people and causes further damage," he adds. "So I think the important thing is to just be consistent, try not to feed into attacking people and retweeting people who attack you, and saying ‘this person needs to be attacked’ – just trying to keep it generally positive and appropriate for your brand."

While the music industry’s susceptibility to this may be greater than the your industry’s, that doesn’t mean the similar circumstances can’t unfold, even if on a smaller scale. They say with social media, your fans act as your salesforce. Well, there is a great deal of truth to that, and unfortunately not all of them are necessarily going to be good salesmen. 

"And all criticism isn’t bad," O’Keefe notes. "I notice with a lot of artists, they seem to breed blind fans, where everything that you do, they will love. The problem with that – with that mentality – is that…you end up being surrounded by ‘yes men’ and enablers. Part of getting better is experimenting and having people tell you that what you’re doing right now isn’t that great, so you need to be open to those thoughts as well – be able to filter nastiness with legitimate criticism and feedback."

Of course, it’s not just fans that you have representing your brand. You may have hired an agency to help you manage your online presence, and it’s possible that they can do more harm than good if you don’t hold them accountable. 

"You need to be careful if you’re an ethical person that you hire an ethical agency," says O’Keefe. "Picking the right agency and keeping an eye on them and making sure they’re doing things that are consistent with your brand…make sure you receive reports from them."

"When they mention your brand online, how are they doing it? What are they saying to who? Insist upon reports so you can see everything that they’re doing," he adds. "Don’t just hire an agency and say, ‘go crazy," because what they do – just like the fans – is in your name…I think we all have to be accountable for ourselves, and be careful who we hire and who we enable to promote on our behalf."

In other words, your online reputation starts with you. The more control you have over your brand message the better, but you can only affect what you actually do control. If you get that part right, the rest can only do so much damage.

"The thing that was interesting is that when it comes to people who are fairly sophisticated….there are a lot of similarities around the world," she said. "Regardless of the level of market development, you find very, very sophisticated social media users."

"The barriers are going to come down," she declared. Barriers will be limited to things like literacy and Internet connections. The point is that everyone is using it, and they’re talking about brands. 

"Now consumers have the microphone, and they’re gonna tell you what they want, and they’re gonna interact on their own terms," she said. "They [marketers] see the value, but they’re not quite sure how to engage. "’Maybe my brand isn’t cool enough’ is what they’re saying…" 

That fact is that brand management teams, she said, are "lacking best practices, and they’re really lacking guidelines. They feel like they’re on the outside looking in."

Many of these marketers and brand managers are simply jumping on the social media bandwagon, without really knowing what to do, Stallworth said. This is not going to lend to a lot of credibility or effectiveness in strategy.

In other words, it’s time to get your stuff together. Social media’s not new and shiny anymore. The longer you wait to develop a real strategy, the worse your brand is going to look and your credibility will diminish. There’s no one strategy. You have to find yours. I’m sure you can find plenty of ideas online. Here’s a few to get your started. 

To put brand social media into perspective, Stallworth shared some wise words: "To connect is to belong. To belong is to believe. To believe is to maybe consider…If I’m considering you then maybe I’m going to think about buying you."

No matter how much time and how many resources are spent on your brand’s social media presence, more can always be done, so many will have to find they have to be selective in areas of participation and time spent. If your budget and time aren’t as restricted, you can build an enormous social presence around the web in the places that matter. Just remember, more can always be done. We at WebProNews certainly have plenty of room to expand and improve our own social strategy, and chances are you do too. 

So, with all of that in mind, here are some ideas you can use to build your social presence. 

Twitter

1. Post regular Twitter updates everyday. That doesn’t mean spam or post them constantly all day long, but there should be enough regularity to where your followers know you’re there and don’t forget about you. That said, don’t talk just to talk. Have something valuable to say. If you produce content, share your links. Some may not think it’s a good idea just to pump out your own links on Twitter, because it’s "about the conversation", but the way I look at is this: if someone is following me, they’re probably interested in what I have to say. If I’m writing articles, those are in essence, what I have to say. That doesn’t mean that it’s not about the conversation. 

2. You should engage in conversation on Twitter. Start conversations that don’t necessarily pertain to your own links. Listen to what others are saying, and join conversations with them, regardless of if they are directly related to your brand or not. 

3. Monitor your brand. Respond to @mentions (good or bad). Respond to direct messages. 

4. Post pictures and videos using services like TwitPic, TwitVid, Yfrog, etc. These things can help humanize your brand and increase engagement with others. They can be conversation starters. People like visuals. 

5. Create relevant lists. Create lists of other Twitterers that can provide value to others. You don’t necessarily have to, but it might be a good idea to create a variety of lists for subjects related to your niche. If you have a car blog, for example, you might have a list of car brands, a list of other car bloggers, a list for mechanics, a list of auto part vendors, etc. 

Facebook

1. Have a Facebook Page for your brand. If you’re running a business, you need a Page, not just a personal profile. What you do with your personal profile is up to you, but your page should be up, and it should be promoted. 

2. Post regular updates throughout the day. Just like Twitter, I see nothing wrong with sharing links to your content here if you write articles or blog posts. I should note that this should be actual helpful content though – not just posts about why people should buy your product. Nobody wants to be a fan of a page that does that. 

3. Respond to comments on your Page. Get involved in conversations. 

4. Update your photos and videos. You don’t have to use third-party services for this on Facebook. 

5. Experiment with landing pages for your Facebook Page. It doesn’t have to go right to your wall. You can direct fans to any information you want to provide. 

6. You can use "notes" to put blog-style content right in Facebook should you choose to do so. 

7. There is a virtually unlimited number of Facebook apps. Look for ones that might be able to add value to your page and get people engaged in a helpful way. This will also take some experimenting. 

YouTube (and other video sites)

1. If you create videos, you need to have them on YouTube and other video sites/networks. This is key for getting your videos out to a wider audience. 

2. These sites are also communities. Respond to comments and subscribe to others. Make friends in the communities. 

3. Push subscriptions to your channels. Keeping people subscribed means keeping them engaged as you continue to produce content. This can help build a following. 

4. Even if you don’t create your own videos, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get involved in conversations and comment on others’ videos. 

5. You can create "favorites" lists of videos that can be helpful, even if they’re not your videos (similar to the Twitter lists).

MySpace

1. MySpace may not be the current flavor of the week, but make no mistake – it’s still got a lot of users. Makes friends on MySpace with like-minded individuals and businesses, and expand your network here. 

2. Like anything else, keep up with your comments and direct messages, and engage in conversation on and off your own page. 

3. Have a professional-looking design for your page. 

4. Highlight your best content. 

5. Update your page regularly with new status updates, blog entries, videos, etc. 

Google Buzz

1. Update Buzz regularly throughout the day with links and general conversation. Basically, treat it similar to Facebook or Twitter. 

2. Engage in conversation on and off your own Buzz posts. 

3. Spend some time making your Google Profile (which is connected to Buzz…and appears in Google search results) the best it can be. Provide links to your other profiles. 

4. Integrate other options that are available and applicable to you (Google Reader sharing, Picasa photos, Orkut, etc.)

5. You can apply these to other networks like LinkedIn and FriendFeed as well. 

Digg, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc. 

1. Share links to others’ content on social bookmarking sites like these regularly. This will help you build a following. 

2. Have buttons to make your own content easy to share on these sites. 

3. Engage in conversations in the comments of links you share and links others share on these sites. 

4. Become friends with others like-minded and interesting people on these networks. 

Forums

1. Find relevant topics in forums that are also relevant to your business and get involved in existing conversations. 

2. Start your own relevant conversations. Don’t just get in there and link to your content. It’s tacky and people will see through it. You can often provide your link in your profile anyway. 

3. If you have built up enough credibility in a forum, you might be able to share a link of your own from time to time in a legitimate fashion, like for example, if you wrote an article on the topic being discussed that helps to answer a question that is being asked. 

4. The more actively you engage in useful conversation, the more credibility you will gain, and you can come to be looked upon as an expert in your field. 

Blogs

1. If you have a blog, keep up with the comments. Respond and stay involved in the conversations. If people disagree with you, which they often will, don’t make a big deal about it or try to prove them wrong. You might just be driving them away. Keep it constructive. Respectfully disagree and maybe elaborate on why you stand by your position, or if they change your mind, maybe tell them you hadn’t looked at things that way. 

2. Take the time to participate in conversation on other relevant blogs. You can basically think of blog comments as mini forums. The same rules pretty much apply. 

Photos

1. As I said, people like visuals, especially current users of sites like Flickr and Picasa. Update photo sites regularly. Again, this can help humanize your brand and even open you up to different audiences. 

2. Participate in conversations in comments on and off of your own photos. 

3. Promote your presence on these sites. On your own site/blog, maybe have some links pointing to these accounts.

The Right Person/People for the Job

1. You want to make sure you have the right person or people representing your brand in all of these communities. You don’t want someone that doesn’t really understand your company’s vision or position  to be out there giving people the wrong impression. 

2. Whoever is representing your brand should have a grasp on current news and strategies related to what your business provides. In other words, they should be knowledgeable. It wouldn’t hurt for the people involved to have a designated amount of time each day just reading news. 

Finally, just keep everything up to date and current. Don’t let profiles go sour. Don’t let comments, questions, and messages sit there to rot. You’ve got to keep up with it all. So, with that in mind, don’t bite off more than you can chew in social media. Look at how much of this you actually want to do, and plan time and resources accordingly. 

This is by no means all that can be done. There are plenty of other communities I didn’t mention, and probably a great deal more strategies that I didn’t touch upon. I think the things mentioned in this article should be a good start though. 

What did I leave out that you would add? Please do so in the comments. 

The web can be great place for a brand to thrive and pick up steam, but it can also go the opposite way. A single blogger can take down a brand. "That’s the reality of the web," says Downhill. It can go the way of Dell or it can go the way of Tiger Woods (or somewhere in between). 

Downhill’s advice is to be proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to brand reputation. I take this to mean that you should be putting yourself out there with as much positivity as possible to begin with, as opposed to waiting for someone to trash your brand, then defending yourself. Even if such trashing is unjustified, like Downhill says, it only takes one blogger to hurt your brand, and there’s a chance some potential customers will only see that side of the story. The more positivity you put out, the more likely they are to find something good to latch onto. If someone sees a lot of good things, then one bad blog post won’t carry as much weight. 

In fact, Downhill suggests never engaging brand attackers at all. If they’re attacking you on blogs, forums, and social media, you might be better off simply addressing such complaints on your own blog and defending yourself from there, than using SEO to work on the visibility of your side of the story. Taking legal action, can be an expensive "black hole", she says. As far as as responding to attackers on blogs, social networks, etc. I would say it’s a judgment call. If I’m getting trashed on a well-trafficked forum that attracts a lot of interest within my niche, for example, I’m probably going to want to respond accordingly. 

Wozman adds that free speech is protected online by the Constitution (at least in the U.S.) and that only false accusations are considered defamatory – not opinions. You can call someone a jerk, but not a criminal. Commenters cannot be held liable because of the Communications Decency Act, and ISP providers cannot be held liable for commenters. 

Downhill recommends buying domains like "yourbrand sucks.com" and any other version of your brand’s domain that is defamatory, that you can think of. Not a bad idea, but it could get expensive depending on how creatively your mind works. Either way, those out to ruin you can probably get pretty creative in that department. 

At BlogWorld last week, I attended a session about brand monitoring. This was not so much about reputation management only, but simply being able to spot the conversations that are happening in relation to your brand, and getting involved in conversations (including positive ones regarding your brand). Ann Peavey, Becky McCray, and Sheila Scarborough gave some good tips. More on that here.

WPN’s Mike Sachoff contributed to this piece. 

David Griner and David Peck of Luckie & Co. and Meshin respectively, ran down some recent case studies from brands harnessing social media and building campaigns around social tools. They avoided the more well-known examples from brands like Comcast, Dell, and Zappos, and instead focused on efforts from brands like the Discovery Channel, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Pee Wee Herman, Naked, Edge, NBC, and Stanfield’s. The one that seemed to get the greatest amount of praise from the audience was the last, the one from Stanfield’s. This campaign is actually currently in full swing. 

Stanfield’s is a Canadian underwear company, and they’ve put up a site where users can watch a cancer survivor hang around his home in his underwear. 

The campaign is a branded charity effort. The guy is locked in his apartment for 25 days. The company set a goal of getting 25,000 Facebook likes, and gaining $25,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. Users can donate a dollar to make the guy do stuff. If one particular task gets support from 500 people, he has to do whatever that task is. For example, some want to see him fry bacon, or wax his chest. 

It didn’t take long until the company had to extend its goal to 50,000 likes because it reached its initial goal so quickly. 

While it no doubt helped that the campaign contributed to a good cause, the company presented it in a way that just inspired people to to engage. It was original. People like the idea of being able to control others, and when it helps cancer research at the same time, it’s a win win. 

We won’t get into all of the other campaigns these guys discussed. You can probably find more about them with a few Google searches. Just know these three takeaways the two Davids left the audience with:

1. Be clear in your goals, and make it easy for your audience to help you reach them. 

2. Be original, even if it means risking the unknown.

3. Base your ideas around the real reasons people like your brand.

What is the most effective social media marketing campaign you’ve seen from a brand? What made it effective? We’d love to hear your comments.