Search Once and Subscribe: Use Personal Pronouns

As you employ Search Once and Subscribe for search strings important to you and your blogging efforts, remember to use personal pronouns.

One example:

A real estate agent in Michigan is looking for new prospects. Search Once and Subscribe to this string: "we’re thinking about selling our house" Michigan or something similar ("I’m selling my house" Michigan or "we’re looking for a new house" Michigan)

If nothing comes up, subscribe to the search anyway (that’s why we call it Search Once and Subscribe). When something does come up, engage in a conversation. Yep – right there on their blog (it’s a conversation station!).

Another example:

A pizzeria in Tulsa is looking to build business. They Search Once and Subscribe to this string: "their pizza sucks" Tulsa or "we order from <insert competitor’s name>" Tulsa

From there, the pizzeria owner can comment on that post (talk about what the blogger said, not that you have fantastic pizza – a comment isn’t a commercial). The pizzeria owner could also read other posts in the blog. Who knows, maybe they both ride motorcycles. Point is, by leaving a comment, the pizzeria owner has the opportunity to point back to his website (blog or no blog).

One last example (for now):

A recruiter is looking for someone in <pick a profession>, Search Once and Subscribe for "my wife lost her job" <profession> or "my husband is looking" <profession>

If HR pros and Head Hunters aren’t using Search Once and Subscribe — they’ll be writing the post above instead of finding it.

Okay, so why use pronouns?  If you don’t, you’ll get tons of splogs or spam…Internet Litter. A search string of "looking for a new house" will get you everything but signal. But using a personal pronoun (such as we in "we’re) brings up much better signals.

By the way, in none of the examples above did I hint that the company was publishing a blog. They were simply listening to the blogosphere.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you just might want to read Search Once and Subscribe.

Other Related Posts:
– How Do I Find a Blog About…?
– How Do I Subscribe to a Feed?
– Putting Your Ear to the Blogosphere
– Jim Foster Doesn’t Blog — Or Does He?
– A Single Feed Creates a Lifetime of Loyalty