Better blogging- from Compendium

The Worst Thing I Heard At Blog Indiana

Posted Wednesday, August 20, 2008 by Chris Baggott

So I was privileged to teach a session on Advanced Business Blogging at the recent Blog Indiana event in Indianapolis. I learned a lot and there were some really smart people with some really good ideas and advice for Blogging in general and Corporate Blogging specifically.

But there was a LOT of Bull S--- too. I'm not normally one to go negative but some of this stuff makes me so mad that smoke comes out of my ears.

Blog Indiana Bad Business Blogging Advice, Comment Monitoring

The experience has given me an idea for a whitepaper: "Top Ten Lies about Business Blogging" (once I calm down, I'll probably change the word Lies to Myths)

This person (who's name escapes me) was doing a session on Business Blogging as well. A woman asked about comments and explained that her CEO wouldn't let them start a company blog unless he could review and reject comments he didn't like.

The advice?? Basically, it's better not to do a blog at all if you are going to actively manage comments!

I was incredulous.   Of course a corporation has to monitor not only comments, but blog posts as well. There is a lot of responsibility and liability for anything that appears on your site...including your blogs.

If Blog Benefits = 100%   Comments in general represent < 10% of that benefit.

The reality is that most business blogs never get that many comments anyway. Comments should never be used as a primary gage of success.   Think about Traffic, Search Engine Optimization and Conversions. Those are the real metrics of blogging best practices.

So my surprise was this idea that if you are not 100% you shouldn't do anything at all was just bad advice.

Stay tuned...I've got another 9 to go :-)

Don't think "website in" think "search engine out".

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Lindsey Young

In our CEO Chris Baggott's latest white paper, he quotes William Flaiz of Search Engine Watch:

"“People don't go to Web sites anymore. Web sites come to them. This is, perhaps, the best way to explain the impact of search on the online experience.”

I was experiencing how very true this is, just last night. You see my fiance and I are huge Purdue football fans. (I went to Ball State, but I've been adopted in) I was searching for some new gear for us this season, namely some hooded sweatshirts, jersey's, etc. as we go to all home games. What did I do? I Google'd it. I didn't know any of those companies, or their website url's. But by searching for what I wanted, I sure did find plenty of people wanting to help me find my Purdue gear!

This is exactly why so many people are coming to Compendium for help with their business blogging. They want to be found, and we get them found! If you haven't already read this white paper, I'd highly recommend it to any potential bloggers. Go to our website and check it out! Blog for your business!

Creative Content from BabyPlus

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

Congratulations to BabyPlus for making it to the second round of the Compendium Blogware Blogging Tournament of Champions. BabyPlus not only creates a lot of content, but they are creative about it as well. They are averaging almost 5 posts per blogger per month which is paying off.

How do they get their bloggers to write content on a constant basis? They do so by having fun. As you can see from the pictures in this post, they motivate their bloggers by keeping them laughing. Giving them popcorn is not "corny" as you can see, it is entertaining. They also award each other with the "Best Blogger of the Month" award which is a hot commodity at this place! It is a coveted certificate naming one person as the "best in blog" for the month.

Not only are BabyPlus' in-office motivation tactics creative, but so are their blogs. The content they write is always fresh and new. BabyPlus does a great job of incorporating current events into their posts. Another reason they are receiving such a high number of visitors is that they do a nice job of creating fun and interesting titles. Good job BabyPlus, see you in the next round!

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Team building at Oliver

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

Those of us in the Client Success area at Compendium Blogware (as well as our entire organization) work hard and pride ourselves on our ability to work well together in order to ensure our clients are seeing ROI on their Corporate Blogs. Every now and then, we do break out of the office for some team building.

Last week the Client Success team took a team trip to Oliver Winery, located in Bloomington, Indiana. For those not familiar with the Indiana terrain, Bloomington is home to Indiana University, and is south of Indianapolis.

Client Success Team with Bill and Dennis in Oliver Vineyard

(Front Row: Dennis Dunham (Oliver), Chantelle Flannery, and Abby Brosmer-Rivera)
(Back Row: Loren Sandman (ICVA), Kristen Hanschu, Sarah Sedberry, Jeff Lefevere, and Bill Oliver (Oliver))

It was an experience none of us will soon forget, as we were taken on a personal tour of the Winery and Vineyard by Bill Oliver (Owner) and Dennis Durham (Winemaker), and treated to a fantastic dinner prepared by Oliver Winery's own Heidi, at the Oliver Farmhouse.

Our team was able to see how wine is made from start to finish at Oliver, complete with tours of their lab, tasting from the oak barrels, seeing them package the wine,

to sampling their new line of Skydog.

For those that are not familiar, there have been several commercials out recently promoting this new line of wines from Oliver. There are several new aspects to Skydog for Oliver, including a twist cap (instead of the traditional cork), and a economical price of $7.50 a bottle.

Most endearing about this line of wines, currently involving a red, white, and rose, is the mascot. To quote straight from the bottle...."Watch out…it's hard to resist a dog with a jet pack."

Dennis, Sarah, and Bill with the Skydog line

The day was a special one for all of us, and we could not be more appreciative to Bill and Dennis for their personalized attention and the patience to answer all our questions! We will not soon forget the experience and hope to plan a return trip soon.

Official Blogging Tournament Rules

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

The tournament began on August 11th and we are now moving into round two. Customers will compete to advance in a Compendium organized blogging tournament based on number of posts written by the client, week-by-week. The Blogging Tournament is designed to create some spirited competition amongst our customers in a battle of the ultimate team game—business blogging. You will be pitted randomly against another Compendium customer in the ultimate blogging championship.

Tournament Rules

You need do nothing to enter the tournament. To participate write blog posts as you normally would, or with a great deal more frequency to more effectively compete.
Winners in the tournament will advance from a field of over 100 on a weekly basis based on the amount of posts generated by each team.
If there is an equal number of posts between the two teams over the course of the week the previous week’s posts will be used to determine who will advance. We will review as many of the previous weeks as necessary in order to break the tie.
A week's worth of posts start on Monday and end on Sunday.
In order for a post to count it must be considered legitimate blog posts. This means that the post must be at least 5 sentences long and contain at least two keywords.
Remember that you’re writing on a corporate blog so talk about appropriate topics that relate to your industry and company.
Please note that sticky posts don’t count.

Tournament Prizes
The winner of the Championship earns a handsome trophy denoting blogging superiority and a bottle of Champaign. There will also be a $50 gas card for the account Administrator and a $50 gas card for the top blogger on the team. The other three final teams will receive a $50 gas card.

Tournament Contact Information
Please have fun with the tournament - use this as a tool internally to mobilize around content development. Keep an eye on Chantelle Flannery’s blog and the tournament bracket for updates.

Write content. Get found in search. Convert traffic. Demonstrate ROI. Crush the competition in business blogging, tournament style!

Blogging Tournament Fall 2008: Round II - Group A

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

The first week of the tournament brought some stiff competition between Intelex and Winning Workplaces. Winning Workplaces just edged out the competition and will now be facing Wilderness Voyageurs. A great match up to watch out for this week will be between Widen and Baby Plus.

Weiss had the second most blog posts last week. Let's hope that they keep up the content creation during week two when they face off with Big League Tours. With our final match up from group A - Webinar Resources will compete against We Know Words.

Five Steps to Mastering Blogging and Online Marketing

Posted Sunday, August 17, 2008 by jeff lefevere

A Compendium customer, Lizan Brand, from Greenfield Liquors, was featured in the Saturday edition of the Indianapolis Star.

One of the things that Lizan is doing that is really interesting is mixing in video--highlighting drink recipes, talking about wine and the sorts of things that contextually engage a reader.

In my personal life, I’m well in tune with wine & spirits video blogging as a wine blogger (vlogger) is ascending to national attention. In fact, wine online darling Gary Vaynerchuk from WinelibraryTV continues to grab the wine world by its shirt lapels and give a good, healthy shake.

Gary continues to not only lead the charge in creating a brand online for himself and his business by proxy, but he also continues to give advice, good advice, to folks interested in growing their business, any business.

Vaynerchuk did an audio interview with an Internet-based business coach and he provided some additional insights that are not just applicable to technology marketing, but marketing in general. You can find the audio portion of the interview here.

Find the text transcript here.

A couple of the nuggets that I gleaned are:

* Vaynerchuk on putting content out on the web: “If you put out great content, you will be found.”

* Vaynerchuk on leveraging your expertise: “So, if you are the best guy in your law firm in contracts, instead of waiting eight to ten years to become a partner, start (using technology) about what you know. Give away that content for free. It will come back to you in spades 800 times over.”

* Vaynerchuk on tapping your passion: “So you may be good at three or four things, but please site down and analyze where you feel you’re most passionate about, even if that is the most competitive genre, do it because that is where you’re going to win when you really believe it, when it goes through your blood, you’re going to win every time because even if you’re not seeing the mythical success, your heart and soul is going to be happy. That is going to push through to the point when you will start seeing success."

* The Interviewer on setting lofty goals: “you have to have high ideals. You have to have something that you’re shooting for that’s absolutely spectacular. What you have to realize is that’s the ideal, that’s not the goal. When you achieve a certain level of success, the people that are super successful don’t compare where they get to--to their ideal. The ideal is just where they’re focused towards. To be happy and to be excited about what you’re accomplishing, you have to look backwards to where you were. As long as you make that leap and you look backwards to feel good about yourself then you can keep that excitement going. If you’re always comparing where you are to the perfect (ideal) then it’s very hard to stay excited …

The frenetic interview wraps up with Vaynerchuk’ “Five Steps to Mastering Social Media.” If you replace the “social media” with “blogging” the same values hold true. They are:

1) Make sure you want to engage/learn it.

2) Now that you know you want it, spend every living second that you possibly can on it.

3) Put your toe in the pool. Get involved.

4) Humble yourself. If you’re the best basketball player in the world, you’re playing hockey now. Put on your skates.

5) Know what you want to accomplish.

Good advice for all and something Lizan, a Compendium customer, is doing successfully and so can you. Business blogging is hardly hard, it just takes a little bit of the above five items.

Blogging from Blog Indiana

Posted Saturday, August 16, 2008 by Megan Glover

Sitting here in the lobby at the IUPUI Campus Center where Blog Indiana is taking place. A great turn out, lots of great bloggers and a really impressive line up of sessions and speakers. Here are some examples:

What makes a great corporate blog,

Blog Review/Critquie Open Discussion,

Showing off you blog.

Blog Etiquette and Ethics

Great to be around blogging enthusiasts from Indiana and beyond. Blog Indiana runs today and tomorrow - there's still time to register for the afternoon and tomorrow's sessions. You can do so here: http://conference.blogindiana.com/

Ready, Set, Go!

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

Our implementation manager here at Compendium, Abby, has done an excellent job of graduating several clients this week and we are very excited to see what they can do.

Check out the newest Corporate blogs to Compendium's platform:

Data Recovery Specialists: A company that focuses on data recovery and computer forensics. Their success rate for data recovery is one of the highest in the industry and they offer extremely competitive rates for their services.

MediaTile:MediaTile is one of the very few companies in the world that provides a comprehensive, all-in-one digital signage platform that integrates an LCD HD display, media player, network access, and a web-based control system.

Roberts Distributors: Roberts focus is on Photo, Video, Electronics, and Imaging. They offer comprehensive classes as well as all the equipment needed to make you a pro!

We look forward to great content and although they were not able to get into this month's Blogging Tournament - Content for the Crown, I'm sure they will give the next round of competition a run for their money!

Search Engine Optimization spending increases

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Eric Romer

A new survey from the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) shows that both advertisers and agencies are ramping up their spending in Search Marketing, particularly organic SEO. This shouldn't be shocking news, as Search Marketing has steadily grown, and will continue to grow as less and less people use destination websites.

It's not rocket science. If I am looking for a particular brand of jeans, or a specific tea pot my mom was talking about, I search. I Google "cast iron asian tea pot", and start my research.

As the survey shows, advertisers are increasing their organic SEO by 28%, and agencies by 73% (the highest increase of all the categories!). So what does this mean? It means companies are trying to optimize a traditional website to be found on many different keywords. The only problem is a website will only be able to capture a handful of keywords. There are hundreds, thousands of different ways I can search for that tea pot. As a business who sells that product, I need to cast a wide net and be found on as many of those terms as possible.

Don't believe me? If you have 5 minutes, check out this Whitepaper that discusses how traditional SEO efforts pale in comparison to a corporate blogging solution when it comes to organic search.

Blogging Indiana!

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

This weekend marks a great event in downtown Indianapolis, and no I'm not talking about Gen-Con. I'm referring to Blog Indiana 2008!

Blog Indiana is a 2-day blogging and social media conference, hosted at IUPUI, that aims to promote education, innovation and collaboration among Indiana’s fast-growing blogging community. There will be several keynote speakers at the conference, including our very own Chris Baggott.

This blog conference for both experienced and new bloggers alike. Sessions will include topics such as blogging for beginners, using blogs in your business, monetizing your blog, political blogging and more advanced topics. So if you are a blogger looking to get started, looking to add a corporate blog, or wanting to capitalize on the success you're already having with the blog for your business - this is a conference you should attend.

Compendium Blogware will also have a booth at the conference, so feel free to stop by and say hello to two of our Business Development Managers, Jenni Edwards and Eric Romer. They will be happy to help answer any questions you may have about blogging for your business.

Happy Blogging!

Blog Indiana 2008

MSNBC talks about Corporate blogging

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Eric Romer

I saw this video over on Debbie Weil's blog, and it apparently aired a couple weeks back on MSNBC. They do a pretty good job highlighting the value of a "blogger-in-chief".

I like that Bill Marriot handwrites his blog posts -- there's something nostalgic about that in a technology-driven world. But at the same time, that can be limiting. Relying on an extremely busy CEO, and someone to transcribe his notes, is a bit tedious.

Free up the employees to create content. They're communicating everyday with potential customers on phone and email, why not a blog?

But...how will I find the time?!

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Lindsey Young

Time is money. This statement just becomes more and more literal as families, businesses, and life get more demanding. Between juggling day to day duties of our positions within our companies, employers and employees alike are hesitate to add one more responsibility to the mix, such as blogging. A common misconception within the group of people I speak with is that investing in a corporate blog is going to eat up too much of their time. Erroneous! I like to negate this idea with the following information: the beauty of our compended blogs is that the responsibility is spread out among several people, the time needed to create a post is minimal...and here is the point I really want to stress to potential clients with the time constraint objection:

Each user should post 2-3 times per week
Approximately 250 word blog posts
Conversational in tone
10-15 minutes MAX to create

If you did the math there, that's about 30 minutes a week! Blogs shouldn't be rocket science, just engage your reader enough to take the next step. Finding relevant information through your company blog will point them in the right direction to becoming your client, customer, or consumer.

Google remains "top dog" in the search engine pack.

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Lindsey Young

We like to provide all of our clients and prospects with accurate, fresh data when it

comes to what search engines like . I often find myself referring to Google for search engines like I might refer to Kleenex for a facial tissue. Clients will often ask if we are just focused on Google. The answer is "not really". The algorithm is basically the same for all of the big players: Google, Yahoo, and MSN. However the market share is truly held by our "do no evil" friends at Google.

The latest data from www.searchenginewatch.com: "Google is pulling in 62% of the online searches, with Yahoo at a distant second with 20%". When it comes to blogging best practices when focusing on SEO, you truly have to consider where the majority of your organic results will lie. Good luck and keep blogging!

Real World ROI Webinar

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

I am excited to announce that my client Visit Tampa Bay is a highlight in the webinar today. They have been an exemplary client of ours and we are pleased to "show them off" Congratulations Jeremy and the rest of the bloggers!

This webinar will cover what we call "Real World ROI". Basically this means that we are showing you how to cover the costs of the blog and then some. The "and them some" can mean more visits to your website, the visitors buying your products or services, or even starting your own community within the blog.

You can still sign up for the webinar by clicking here. It is not too late! Sign up now.

Your Biggest Problem Solved

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Ali Sales

I've been trying to find a new briefcase for work. My intent was to purchase a really nice one -- like Tumi quality because I keep buying cheapos that look nice and then fall apart in a few months. Except I didn't want a Tumi because...well, I just don't like their styles all that much.

So what did I do, given that I knew exactly what I wanted, just didn't know who to buy it from?

I searched. I typed in "best women's black leather briefcase." Talk about being a dream prospect. I used a lot of descriptive keywords to indicate exactly what I was looking for.

Okay, so of course you're wondering what my briefcase dilemma has to do with you.

Well, as a marketer, I'm guessing this is the biggest problem on your hands.

You want people to find you. You want people to find you online. And you want people who don't know a bit about your company or brand to be able to find you online.

What you may not realize is that starting a business blogging program can help you solve this problem. Taking it a step further, a blogging solution like Compendium Blogware will help you target hundreds or even thousands of terms that have something to do with your company.

Believe it or not, people are going online and looking for the products and services you provide every day. They aren't necessarily looking for your company, your website, or your company blogs, but they are asking for something you can help them with.

Yet how satisfied and happy would they be if they did their search, found a result titled exactly what they were looking for, and clicked through to find a blog featuring friendly, educational content generated by several people within your company, and a way to act upon exactly what they are looking for, whether if be making the purchase directly from the blog or just requesting more info?

I'll end this with 2 things:

1. A really relevant quote from William Flatz of Avenue A/Razorfish

“People don't go to Web sites anymore. Web sites come to them. This is, perhaps, the best way to explain the impact of search on the online experience.”

2. My briefcase outcome. After picking through countless websites for places like LeatherTree.com, I decided that I'd had enough and went straight to Target, where I spent $30 on a new briefcase. Sigh. Briefcase retailers, are you out there? It's time to start blogging.

A Battle of the Greats

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

You might not be aware of this, but the greatest spectacle on earth is taking place right now. No, I am not talking about the Beijing Olympics. What I am talking about is the Compendium Blogware Blogging Tournament of Champions.

As it is also commonly referred to as "Content for the Crown", this tournament is an all out fight to the death. Well, not really. It is, however, a tournament to determine which of our clients is producing more content than all the others.

In round 1, we have two of our greats going up against one another. Roto-Rooter and Conclusive Marketing are two of our clients that constantly produce well organized and informative content. They continually follow "blogging best practices" by producing at least two blog posts per blogger each week. Their dedication to constantly updated content certainly pays off for them. Not only do they see their blogs ranking on the first page of Google, but they are both receiving more traffic. Coincidence, we know not.

Good luck to both teams. We look forward to reading your blog posts. To view the brackets, click here.

The New Age of Recruiting

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by meghan peters

Many organizations are used to posting open positions or internships on their website, compiling submitted resumes and then weeding out for interviews. But what if this process was changed and all the work was done by the student and all the company had to do was show up for an interview? This may seem like a strange idea, but it's not so strange for those ambitious and creative college students. With hard times in the economy and job market, many college students are trying to find another way to land their first big position or internship.

This introduces you to the idea of informational interviews. Informational interviews are basically when a soon-to-be college grad does some research on a company they find interesting then contact a specific department to see if they can conduct an informational interview to get to know the company and positions they offer, and to sneak in some advice from someone who has been in the business for a while.

Now you are probably wondering how this pertains to blogs? In a recent blog post on MarketingSherpa by Anne Holland she found that the blogosphere is a great place for college grads to do some research on potential future employers. Not only does blogging boost your SEO but it also puts a human voice to your company, which helps students identify with your company a bit easier.

There are a lot of students that graduate from college every summer and companies want to be sure they get someone who is going to bring something to the table. So why not attract some bright stars? I'm sure you already have plenty of great reasons to implement Corporate Blogging, but I think you can add this to your list!

Blogging Tournament!

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

It is Tournament time here at Compendium Blogware. The quest "Content for the Crown" has officially begun!!

Content for the Crown

To see who you are up against, check out the tournament bracket.

Let your competitive spirit out and make sure you post! Click here to login and start writing content for your corporate blog now.

Also, we encourage healthy competition and banter. Feel free to post comments, as trash talking is allowed. Please do keep in mind that unsportsmanlike conduct is not condoned and could result in disqualification from the Tournament.

When it comes to witting content for the Blogging Tournament - One thing to remember is that content will be reviewed and all posts must be considered legitimate blog posts. This means that the post must be at least 5 sentences long and contain at least two keywords. Remember that your writing on a corporate blog so talk about appropriate topics that relate to your industry and company. (Please note that sticky posts don’t count.)

You can follow the blog tournament progress on Chantelle's blog.

Corporate blogging is like gardening

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Eric Romer

Or traveling to Florida for vacation.

Or throwing a party.

Or building a house.

OK, so my point is, you can fill in just about any analogy and it would work. The desired outcome is an award-winning garden, or arriving in Florida, or having a fun party everyone talks about, or seeing the house in its final stages. How you get there is by using the proper tools or tactics.

This is mostly inspired from reading a great post by Shel Holtz, co-author of "Blogging For Business", along with other communication-focused books. (Not to be confused with Shel Israel, co-author of "Naked Conversations", another book on corporate blogging)

Gardening Tools
I've talked about the issue of time in several posts on this blog, and you can count this as another. My biggest issue with that argument related to business blogs is that it's an excuse, not a valid reason.

If all of the sudden, there was a revolutionary new tool that could improve the way I garden, I'd probably want to know about it. I would never say "I have no time to use that tool." Take the picture above. There are a lot of different tools that a gardener can use to achieve his/her end goal - to make it the most healthy, attractive garden around. (if that's not the goal gardeners, speak up) The end game is the same, but the tools are up to each individual gardener.

It's the same thing with business. Any business has to communicate with it's shareholders, employees, existing customers, and most importantly potential customers. To drive business, you need leads. You need to introduce your business to a qualified prospect, build trust, prove value and convert them into a happy customer.

Blogging is just a tool. A simple, easy tool that scales content and allows you to communicate more effectively.

Shel writes:
Blogging is a new communication channel. Before blogs became widely available and accepted, executives made do with the channels available to them: one-on-one phone calls, conference calls, speeches, road shows, letters, email and so on. I have heard from a number of CEOs that blogs are more effective than any of these tools for a variety of communications. Therefore, they have replaced the use of such channels with blogging. In aggregate, though, they’re spending just as much time fulfilling their role as the company’s chief communicator.
And he's just highlighting an executive's reason to blog. We at Compendium preach to allow employees, not just C-level exec's, to blog for your business. As the Edelman Trust Barometer shows us, an employee blog is "five times more credible than a CEO blog." Shel also has some good tips on time management, group blogs and ROI. Read the rest of his post HERE.

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