Corporate blogging software

Icann Domain Name Confusion: Why you have to start corporate blogging now.

Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Many of you may have noticed the announcement last week regarding ICANN dramitically increasing the suffixes available for domain names. Here is a blurb from the New York Times:

According to new rules unanimously passed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, at its meeting here, any company, organization or country will soon be able to apply for a new Web address extension, called a top-level domain.

That could smooth the way for Web addresses that end in city names, brands and generic words. It could also sow confusion in the minds of Web users, create a host of new ways to exploit the Web addressing system and start a wave of legal skirmishes over applications to register trademarks — .coke, for example.

Uggh! What a mess this makes for normal businesses & organizations. People are already having a tough time keeping track of your web address. By adding basically an unlimited number of .anything branding by domain becomes just about impossible.

If anything is going to drive people even more into the arms of the search engines, it's going to be this.

What are you going to do?

Incorporate blog management software company wide. The biggest benefit of enterprise or business blogging is Search engine optimization. The more people you have blogging, the more relevant content gets created, and the more likely you are to be found accross a lots of keywords.

Forget people remembering your domain...focus on getting found by using corporate blog tools.

Find your 'ness' through Corporate Blogging

Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Dupree in Compendium Blogware Corporate Blogging Software

I recognize that not many people have seen "You, Me & Dupree", but I believe it's a movie destined for cult-like status in the future.

What does this have to do with Business Blogging Software or Corporate Blogging Strategy....well, there is an important lesson that Dupree is trying to teach us.

We all need to find our inner "ness" -ness is a suffix that goes after your name, as in what is my "Chris-ness" the unique thing that makes me...me...? (ok, you really need to see the movie to get this)

The point I'm making poorly here is that organizations need to find and articulate their 'ness' too and blog creation software is the way to do it.

Use blogging and communicate your 'ness'.

My Response to ZDNet's Mitch Ratcliffe.

Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by Daren Tomey

I read a great post this morning from Mitch Radcliffe at ZDNet titled, "What is a company blogger good for?. Mitch does a great job of outlining 5 goals or objectives that companies may consider prior to launching a corporate blog. As a result of his post, I posted the following comment.

"Seems obvious but often overlooked

Mitch,

Thanks for the post on developing a clearly defined set of goals and objectives prior to launching a company blog. As a provider of corporate blogging software (www.compendiumblogware.com), we all to often encounter this challenge and attempt to take a more consultative approach with our prospects and clients. Sometimes this backfires as some of them simply want to subscribe and blog, however those that are either already focused on their goals or are willing to allow us to help them define what their goals and objectives are going to be related to blogging for a purpose, experience the greatest benefits and quantifiable results."

So, how did I find Mitch's post? It is a simple process of setting up Google Alerts, something that we recommend to all of our clients. These alerts, set up with keywords that are important to your business, industry, or interests, are great sources of inspiration and topics for which an author can write about on a daily basis.

This and other blogging best practices can be found on our website at www.compendiumblogware.com.

doctor's orders: go to Bonnaroo

Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by mikey mioduski

You know how you ease into a really hot tub or even a really cold body of water? That's how I had to take my first week at Compendium for my newest summer internship as the in-house design guy. Not that I wasn't excited or ready to take on the world of corporate blogging and web 2.0 with the tenacity that these five dollar terms deserve. I just didn't want to hurt myself coming out of grad school into the pro's. I didn't seek medical advice, but I imagine any doctor would have told me this is a good idea. You know, keep a limber mind.

Bonnaroo 2008 was incredible. One of the best times of my life. Some of the best live music I've heard in some time. My advice to anyone who cares, go see My Morning Jacket this summer if at all possible.

Now finishing up my third week I am blown away at the quality of people at Compendium. Great environment. And busy. My plate has been FULL since day one. I have a canker soar in my mouth. I've been informed by a very sweet, very attractive dental hygienist that this is a sign of stress. I haven't felt stressed out. But I sure as hell have been busy. This is good.

This place is busy. That's the bottom line. The more I am learning about our software, services, and corporate blogging in general, the more I am starting to understand why the weeks have flown by.

Time to go!

Compendium Blogware Closes $1.6mm

Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by Chris Baggott

chris baggott of Compendium Blogware Corporate Blogging Software Solution with Seth Godin

I am pleased to announce that we were quickly oversubscribed on our most recent funding round.

Seeking $1.5mm we quickly had commitments from angel investors for $1.6 at which point we closed the round.

Whats significant about Compendium Blogware's Corporate Blogging software is we are able to get by on much smaller investments than a traditional software startup. This may not always be the case, but at this point because our client base is growing so quickly we are able to fund a great deal of the company out of operations......kind of old fashioned I know :-)

But obviously, we are really excited and proud to have the support of our investors and proud of the fact that that so many Organizations (from large enterprises to small businesses) are finding tremendous value in our blog management software.

Blogging for business is just beginning a rapid adpotion and organizations are recognizing the need for an easy to deploy SaaS solution with a solid ROI.

Follow this link to a nice article today on the announcement....Compendium Blogware Funding Announcement

Software Forecast: Partly Cloudy

Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by PJ Hinton

The big buzzword in the computer trade press these days is cloud computing, the idea of hosting an application, or key components thereof, on a third party service in a way that is easy to set-up and scale.

Amazon has been the trailblazer in this area, with internet services for computing, message queues, file storage, and databases. There are a growing number of startups with plans either to challenge Amazon or develop solutions that make leveraging Amazon's services easier. Google has been making inroads with the limited beta of its App Engine. Microsoft is still trying to figure it out.

Yesterday, CNet blogger Dave Rosenberg wrote a post on his blog Negative Approach, asking just how far will the move to cloud computing reach. Quoting from the post: (emphasis mine)

I started to wonder whether everything really will go to the cloud and all of our open-source musing will go away, as software becomes consumed versus installed.

Realistically, there is a vast array of software that really can't move outside the enterprise in the foreseeable future. Consider, for example, banking and stock-trading systems, or telecommunications infrastructure. On the other hand, consider pretty much everything else. Even when you take into account the complexities of back-office systems, odds are that in a green-field situation, you could find a software-as-a-service application to solve your problems.

So here's the paradox that I think about: Let's consider a company like Google, which writes, buys, and installs a lot of software. Some is unique to its business and isn't available as an online service. Other products are packaged applications. Yet it wants the rest of the world to stop buying software, instead just consuming it from Google.

I'm not seeing a way that on-premise software disappears forever...

He's probably right about on-premise software retaining some degree of presence, but I think we'll see a transition of viewpoints. Right now, the default (and prudent) stance is to take a wait-and-see approach to putting apps completely in the cloud.

Given that there are burps and glitches, it'll be some time before businesses can move critical functions to hosted services like Amazon's. With time for the technology to reach maturity, I suspect that the burden of proof will shift, and the default question will become, "Why should we buy this software and host it ourselves?"

Fortunately for us, corporate blogging just happens to be a "green field situation" for many businesses. With our ever growing list of features and a firm technological foundation that's built to be reliable, it's easier for us to make a compelling case that instead of building and maintaining a blog with consumer grade software, a business should instead adopt our hosted blog software as a part of their corporate blogging strategy.

When higher organic search results and better customer engagement become the norm, the last thing Compendium customers of will be accused of is "walking around with their heads in the clouds."

Comment I made on Debbie Weil's Blog

Posted Thursday, June 26, 2008 by Chris Baggott

I made this comment today on Debbie Weil's blog:

Uggh! Every time I hear the term "Brand" I cringe...

If social media is telling us anything, it's telling us that people are tired of 'brands', we are tired of institutions, we are tired of being treated like a mass of consumers instead of individuals, We are DONE with reach & frequency advertising.

What we want is to deal with people...real human beings that like what they are doing, like the customer, believe in their products & services and think that they have something of value to offer.

The way we find these real humans is through search.

The job of the marketer is no longer to shout and interrupt...fighting to create a brand message. The job of the marketer is now to listen. The prospect will tell us when they have a need (by typing that need into a search engine) Marketers need to listen...stand up respectfully, raise their hand and say...."hey, we can help you".

This is the real power of corporate blogging. Empower the humans involved in your business..your employees to create content, offer that content and get found when people search. The searcher lands on content that reflects their search intent, written by a real person who honestly deserves consideration....

This is how social media like blogging successfully fits into the modern marketing mix.

Sorry for the rant... :-)

Best,

Chris Baggott
CEO
Compendium Blogware
www.compendiumblogware.com

Write a blog post in 8 minutes...

Posted Wednesday, June 25, 2008 by Ali Sales

It's 1:52. I have a meeting in 8 minutes. That's not a long time to get much of anything done, but I'm going to write a blog post during it. Why? To prove that generate content for your business blogging program doesn't have to take a ton of time.

Here are a few quick tips for writing good, quick content:

1. Use your arsenal of existing content. We tend to forget how much content all of us accumulate over just a few weeks. There is nothing wrong with re-purposing content for your corporate blogs. Some places to look:

Newsletters
Whitepapers
Old articles
Your inbox
Industry News

Tip: Subscribe to Google Alerts for the terms you care most about. For Compendium, that means things like "blogging software" and "business blogs."

2. Just do it. You can't waste too much time thinking "what should I write about." Look at your arsenal and start typing.

If you're using Compendium Blogware, you'll see the things you should write about on the righthand side of your user account, so that should help you get focused. More doing, less thinking is good for all of us sometimes.

3. Don't be afraid to reiterate and repeat. Assuming that you're blogging for SEO, you can expect that it will mostly be new visitors returning to your blog. They haven't seen your best stuff yet, as content is continually getting pushed down to the bottom of your blogs.

It's 1:59 and my post is finished. I didn't have to spend hours coming up with content (I got the idea for this post based on the conversations taking place at Compendium headquarters around time commitment and content). I logged in. I started writing. I used my keyword suggestion tool, brain, and eye on the clock to keep my content on track.

Must Love Blogs

Posted Wednesday, June 25, 2008 by jennifer buscher

Are you still searching the classified ads? Nowadays, everything we could possibly search for is literally at our finger tips with the advent of search engines. Compendium Blogging takes this a step further. The idea behind our simple blogging software is that someone types their problem or keyword into Google’s magic little box and what comes up on the first page of the organic results is a blog titled with the exact keyword phrase. What they will find in that compendium blog is content very relevant to what they are searching for and the company who can help them or solve their problem. From a corporate standpoint, blogging can help company’s reach a more targeted specific audience and therefore help them generate more qualified leads. Long gone are the days of sifting through classified ads, searching for a used black Honda Accord or a single 35-40 year old man looking for love who must love dogs. I’m sure there are dating sites out there for single pet lovers.

Corporate Blogging from Africa

Posted Monday, June 23, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Young Girl from a School Visit in Kenya, for Compendium Blogware

Ok....I didn't do any business blogging from Africa.   But I could have....

Perhaps the thing that surprised me the most from my recent two week trip to Kenya was how wireless they were....   My IPhone worked better in the bush 300 miles from Nairobi than it works in my hometown here in Indiana.

So that raises the question...why didn't I blog?   The honest answer was that I promised my family to do no work (including blog writing) while we were on this trip. For the most part I kept to that. But I did think about it a lot.    And of course posed the question: "I there room in a Corporate Blog for reflections from a personal vacation?"

The answer of course is ABSOLUTELY. The whole idea behind Blogs for Companies is to humanize an organization.   You blog for your business because you want to not only showcase your expertise in specific products or services but also let searchers learn a little more about you and your company as individuals. Blog Information should contain personal insights...human interest and other content that let's the reader get to know and trust you.

I went to Kenya with my kids...I didn't know what to expect and had the experience of a lifetime from an educational, business and fun standpoint.    Like it or not, blog writing is what I do...and what I'm going to be talking about over the next few days is what I learned about Corporate Blogging in Kenya.

Blog Potomac Questions: Answered

Posted Thursday, June 19, 2008 by Ali Sales

As a follow up to my last post, I'm going to put together a response for each of the questions I heard during the Blog Potomac conference last month.

I'll start with this question because it's the one I get most excited about:

How can I track the impact of corporate blogging?

Easy. Are you currently tracking the impact of your website? Are you tracking the impact of your Pay Per Click campaigns, email marketing, and any other online activities?

Good, I thought so. Then you can most definitely track the impact of blogging. There are a few key things:

1. You must have a goal when you start your blogging program. If you have no goal, then how will you measure against it?

2. You must have a call-to-action or conversion point accessible from your blogs. Take a look at the sidebar of my blog. Notice those conversion points? It's no secret that I want to build a relationship with you. So of course I need to provide ways for you to express more interest in my business.

3. From that conversion point, drive the visitor to a landing page that a) is specific to the blogging program or b) includes a tracking string so you can trace conversions back to that URL

4. Use your CRM system. To use Compendium as an example, we use a hidden field named "blogging program" as a source for prospects that come from our blogs. We also use Campaigns in salesforce.com so that we can track how a prospect from our blogging program progresses into a client opportunity for us. Campaigns in salesforce are great because they will automatically calculate your ROI!

I'll end my response with a pretty powerful snapshot of how blogs will change your business.

Compendium's blogging program generated $15K in new business over the last two months, is our second best online activity from an ROI standpoint (we assume that we would pay for our own software when we calculate ROI), and has a new client close rate of 35%.

The beauty of blogging is that it's online, trackable, and...it works.

Better Blogging -- Now with Keyword Strength Scoring!

Posted Wednesday, June 18, 2008 by PJ Hinton

Businesses adopting corporate blogging are often motivated by the promise of better placement in organic search results. To help realize that goal, Compendium Blogware harnesses the power of Data Driven Blogging, where employee posts are presented in topic-oriented blogs as well as individual blogs. These topics are selected based on keywords that the customer wishes to target for better results.

For some time, our user interface for creating posts has included a tag cloud that lists these topics. Titles of keyword blogs having more posts are displayed at a larger font size. At a glance, the blogging employee can see what topics have been written about most frequently on the organization's blogs. While this information might be helpful in choosing a post topic, it doesn't give much guidance on the quality of a post as it is being written.

As of today, our blog editing software incorporates a new and very handy feature, a Keyword Strength score that serves as a rough measure of the quality of keyword usage. You can see a screenshot of the feature in action below. It's a status bar that changes from red to green as the score moves from a baseline of 0 to a maximum of 100.

The scoring system takes a balanced approach, encouraging keyword usage and variety, while discouraging excessive usage that might make a post look spammy.

Does a high score guarantee a good post? Not necessarily. It's important to remember that when you're writing content, keep the customer in mind. Relevance is what keeps them reading. While this new feature can't save you from writing bad content for your corporate blog, the meter can help you improve the search engine friendliness of already great material.

Blogging for Human Engagement

Posted Tuesday, June 17, 2008 by Jim Hyslop

Over the past couple of weeks I have been involved in a lot of conversations about one of the coolest features of the blog; the ability to engage in conversation in more of a human to human setting.

It is always interesting to think about the way in which you conduct your research process when looking for information,or reviews of products you are looking to buy. Over the years this process has evolved as the ability to buy online has become much more secure and convenient. Being a 30 year old guy my search always starts online. I find the most relevant sources of information (usually blogs by other people that already own the item I am looking at) and I read many posts, good and bad, to get a general feel of the publics opinion on this item. Once armed with the culture and feeling around this item I am off to the store to talk specs and technical jargon with the guy on the sales floor.

BUT, WHAT IF...JUST WHAT IF...I could actually achieve that same sense of comfort I now find in the store, online utilizing a corporate blog? The answer to that is simple......my path to purchase is much easier and I am a happy shopper who will probably be back to buy more in the future.

Before I was visiting two places, the internet and the store, before making my purchase. But lets think about how simple,and efficient my process could be if I could engage in a business blog where the customers had a presence as well as the guy on the sales floor so I could find all of the information I need to feel comfortable making a purchase in one spot. I would imagine the next time I needed to buy I would have a good idea of where to start looking.

In short the benefits of corporate blogging tools will definitely not only bring value through SEO but also through the idea of humanized marketing for conversion. People want to buy from other people and they want to talk to other people to feel comfortable with their buying decisions why wouldn't an enterprise want to provide their customers that opportunity at the point that is closest to the point of purchase. Makes sense right?

Always Be There

Posted Monday, June 16, 2008 by eric romer

I had a conversation with a prospective client today, and as we were talking about the importance of business blogs, he referenced an adage from his boss to "always be there." I really like this saying, and it relates directly to corporate blogging.

You may be thinking that is a simple, blanket statement. However, it is increasingly true in the Web 2.0 world that is constantly evolving. We are in an on-demand culture, where people become disengaged if your business is not providing new, valuable information. The days of stagnant websites are fading fast. And with blog software becoming more simplified for small businesses and large enterprises alike, blogs are the vehicle for consistent information flow.

To tackle a somewhat overwhelming world of technology, the best strategy is to

"always be there", presenting relevant solutions when people come searching. Remember how Superman was somehow "always there" when someone was in trouble? Consider business blogs your Superman-like power to be present when a problem arises (only people are typing into Google, not yelling your name for help).

Live (sort of) from BlogPotomac

Posted Sunday, June 15, 2008 by Ali Sales

This past Friday, I traveled to Washington D.C. to take part in BlogPotomac, a casual conference (it took place at the State Theater, host to mostly concerts).

I took a lot of notes and had every intention of posting while at the conference, but here I am a few days later after a very messy day of travel home.

Some of the key topics of discussion included:

1. How do I motivate people in my organization to not only dip their toe into corporate blogging, but consistently fuel the business blogging machine with updated content?

2. What are the right means of social networking for my business? i.e. There's so much buzz about Second Life, FaceBook, blogging, etc....how do I move forward without trying to do too much, and doing the right things?

3. How can I track the impact of organizational blogging?

4. Do I have to have a corporate blogging policy...how can I control content?

5. If we participate in the blogosphere, what kind of engagement should we expect to see (i.e. comments) based on what others have seen in the past?

Excellent fodder for several blog posts (perhaps you're wondering about some of the same things), and I have some good quotes from the variety of speakers who took the stage.

Because I'm excited about these questions, I'm hereby declaring my "How to Evaluate Online Traffic" series over (this is one of the best parts of business blogging -- you have flexibility in what you do or do not want to talk about) because I found out that MidMarketer has a great whitepaper on the topic. Why recreate the wheel?

A link to the MidMarketer Web Analytics: What to Look at whitepaper is here - they have several other great resources on their site.

I'll spend my next few blog posts addressing the topics above.

The Human Element

Posted Wednesday, June 11, 2008 by eric romer

So, I was flipping channels last week, and I stumbled upon CNBC's "The Business of Innovation" hosted by Maria Bartiromo. I only caught the last five minutes of the program, but it was focusing on the "Human Element" of business and innovation. There was an all-star panel weighing in on the topic, including Jack Welch, former CEO of GE.

What really jumped out to me, so much so that I scrambled for a pen and pad, was the statement from one of the panelists that "engaging your employees is the key to innovation". Wow. That is a really powerful statement and observation. And it really drives home the benefits of top corporate blogs -- they empower employees to contribute content.

At Compendium, a blogging company in Indianapolis, we often stress the importance of being "found". That first step in the customer acquisition cycle is "how are people finding you?". Professional blogs are very friendly with search engines, and with proper blogging techniques, companies can be "found" on a wide variety of search terms.

However, the power of the human voice, and how that affects both the internal and external reputation of a company is sometimes overlooked. People like to buy from people. People want to hear from the employees that make up a company, not just the top executives. Empower them to create relevant content about your business -- make it part of your company's culture!

But don't listen to me, listen to the Jack Welch's, Gil Cloyd's and Bob Johnson's of the world. They realize that to be a true innovator in business, you must engage employees and have a human element to your messaging.

Blogging is not enough...

Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by jennifer buscher

Last week there was an interesting article from targetmarketingmag.com about best practices to profit from blogs. Basically, the problem is that many companies try blogging hoping to see better organic search results and have failed for several reasons. If you simply want to use blogging as a form of citizen journalism or to add a human voice to a company then any individual platform will suffice. However, if your goal is to win organic search and boost lead generation then any old blogging platform will not do the trick and you will be disappointed with results. The right blogging techniques and corporate blogging platform have to be in place to see ROI results.

There's no such thing as a free... blog?

Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by Lindsey Young

We've all heard that old adage, "there's no such thing as a free cat". Well the same can most definitely be said for blogging. You get what you pay for, plain and simple. And trust me, free isn’t always free. A lot of objections have come up lately here at Compendium. People interested in our software asking why they can't use a "free" platform and get the same results. I can sit here and list the differences between the other platforms and the numerous features our software offers in comparison, but I'd rather focus on our target audience at hand; marketers. In a recent post by our CEO Chris Baggott, he referenced a technology focused blog that stated:

"I complained to him that one of my annoyances in life is how complex Wordpress actually is. Why? Because you don’t just have to configure Wordpress to get anywhere. To get it to perform acceptably you can either throw powerful hardware at the problem (which is how Club Troppo has done it since our donation drive last year) or you can implement a whole rogue’s gallery of tweaks and adaptations."

While it might be the goal of the IT department to tinker in applications, it is not the goal of the marketing departments of the world. Marketing departments strive to drive in new leads, and progress forms of customer acquisition. Our blogs do that through engaging content, traffic through SEO, and increased search engine rankings. That is not the goal nor the outcome of free blogging platforms built for individuals. With Compendiums corporate blogging platform, blogging for a purpose is what our clients are doing. Marketers aren’t wasting valuable time managing the platform; they’re using our Software as a Service, and realizing their ROI. Let us do the heavy lifting; we are a solution for marketers, not another stray cat draining valuable time and resources.

Why are "Free" Blogs Sites Free?

Posted Monday, June 9, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

You might see some blogging sites out there that offer a "free subscription". The truth is that most of them are not really free. They might give you a free demo or a free trial month, but they are not completely free to use.

I was once told that you get what you pay for. Those low cost blog sites you might be using demonstrate just that. Low cost blogs are not bad for the individual who has no other purpose than to use a blog as their personal journal. If you want to reach millions of people by leveraging the employees at your organization, consider using Compendium Blogware.

We incorporate the newest blogging trends out there with our one of a kind software. How do we do this? We allow multiple bloggers on one platform giving each and every person in your company the ability to be heard. Our blogware optimizes keywords for search engine optimization. It gives you the ability to make your blog exciting by adding video, links, and images. Equally as important, we avoid SPAM on our blogs by using a captcha (a tool that captures spam and keeps it from being posted on your page).

The list of benefits and features goes on and on. One thing is certain, our software is one of a kind. We blog like no one else. Just remember why those other programs are free when you consider blogging.

Profiting from Business Blogs

Posted Friday, June 6, 2008 by Megan Glover

Compendium CoFounder/CEO, Chris Baggott was featured along with Debbie Weil, corporate blogging thought leader, in a recent article by Target Marketing: 5 Best Practices to Profit from Business Blogs.

The article focuses on the top blogging trends and also alludes to the future of corporate blogging:

“In a couple of years, you’ll go to any corporate homepage and you’ll expect something there that is fresh, real, where you can leave a question and learn something that is not just that static corporate speak about the company,” she [Debbie Weil] explains.

The bottom line is people buy from people. Consumers are marketing savvy... they know when their being fed corporate speak. Why do people turn to online reviews of a product before buying? Why do I look at the recipe reviews before trying? Because I enjoy that human interaction... and blogging is one way businesses can accomplish this.

More later on humanizing your marketing, we're actually working on a Webinar on this very topic featuring Chris and Dustin Sapp CoFounder/President of Vontoo.

In the meantime enjoy the Target Marketing article. It's a great piece of educational info if you're thinking about implementing a corporate blogging strategy.

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