When you write a blog, what are you motivations? It depends on what you are hoping to achieve through your blog. Business blogging is going to be different than personal blogs or journalistic blogs.
What should you look for in a business blog? What is a "successful" business blog?
Tons of Followers? Not necessarily. Some of our most successful clients have up to 90% of their visitors showing up on their blog for the first time. It's not about people following your blogs, it's about potential customers finding your blog when looking for the product or service you provide.
A Plethora of Comments? Not essential. Because people are not engaging in dialogue through your blog doesn't mean that they don't care about it. Your business blog is a business tool. The demographic you should be targeting is the customer looking for your product. If they show up on your blog and immediately click over to your sight, then that is a successful visitor.
Search Engine Optimization? YES! The most important motivation behind writing a blog for your business should be the desire to blog for search engine optimization. When you can make that a priority, you will find success! Blogging for search is easy and powerful for business.
Compendium's blogging solution is the most effective way to help customers find your organization. For more information about Compendium, check out a this
case study about blogging for success.
We've all experienced it- Writer's block. Whether it be on an essay exam in college, trying to decide what to write on the inside of a card, or those few times every year when you make a pledge to start keeping a journal... As soon as the pen starts moving or the keys start typing, we automatically lock up and feel like we have nothing to say. Why is that!? Studies show that people speak, on average, over 15,000 words a day!
You would think with all those words we speak, we should never run out of things to write about. However, writer's block is a stumbling point for many of Compendium's bloggers. Let me put it plain and simple...
You can never run out of things to blog about.
We spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week talking about the products and services of our companies- what's new, what's working, what's changing, what's happening... Simply take those topics discussed everyday and turn those into blog posts!
A business blog software platform should be a place where you can take details and
current events around your products and talk about them! Remember, your posts don't always have to be the most profound, original, Pulitzer Prize winning entries...
when you blog for search engine optimization, it is the amount of content that matters!If you're still stuck, I suggest checking out this
blog by Doug Karr that includes a very extensive list of possible blog topics.
Funny how strategies can bring a business together and create motivation. Today for lunch our department came together for a blogging lunch. We are all engaged in a contest with our sister company, ExactTarget. Whoever wins, buys and serves the other lunch! The odds are stacked against us with employee numbers but at this point its a matter of pride.
ExactTarget is the leading SaaS one to one email marketing in its space, delivering personalized relevant data to its subscribers. Compendium, on the other hand, is the only Saas blogging platform built for the purpose of demand/lead generation and customer acquisition optimizing organic search for SEO.
According to a Corporate Blogging and Email Whitepaper
"Blogging as a business tool is beginning to gain widespread adoption within organizations of all types and sizes. That’s why the time seemed right to publish a whitepaper discussing how blogging and email marketing work together.
"Few would argue that email is the greatest tool ever invented for building relationships after they’ve been initiated. In the email marketing world, this is known as permission. It’s generally a bad practice to use unsolicited email as an acquisition tool. Unlike other forms of direct marketing, unsolicited email is considered annoying, expensive, and unproductive.
Email is a great conversion and retention tool, but what should you do about acquisition?"
In steps blogging for business. Compendium Blogware is built as a tool for SEO. Results achieved by driving traffic, converting visitors through organic search.
Two great companies, battling for a title, and delivering results to their customers.
I was demonstrating the power of the Compendium corporate blogging software today for a prospective client who wants to blog with a business purpose. The woman I spoke with knows how to blog, but can't seem to organize her content that will allow her to blog for SEO. As I we got into our discussion, I could hear her excitement build about our easy blog software that allows a company blogger to not worry about the marketing of each post. Let Compendium do that part for you! Just get on, and blog about what you know best . . . . your business.
Here is a comment I just read on one of our client's blogs:
"We have found that many parents-to-be visit our website as a direct result of Internet research of learning in the womb."
http://blog.babyplus.com/blog/infant-growth-assessment
In this post, BabyPlus asks their online customers to send them questions to be answered on the blog. What a great way to get your revenue stream engaged in your marketing effort! Nice work BabyPlus, nice work.
We all know the horrors of social networking sites such as Facebook. Believe me, being a college student, I know the dangers of having a Facebook page. I have even heard horror stories of people being turned away from jobs because of their profile.
However, social network sites such as Facebook, LinkdIn, and Twitter can be an asset to you. Not only to helping potential employers having easy access to your experience, but also your blogs. You can provide links to your blogs on your profiles. I found this little piece of advice in an article called "
25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog". The Lee Odden gives great insight into how to get more people to read your blog.
By putting a link to your blog can help not only promote your blog, but promote you as a working individual as well. People reading your blogs can become part of your network and as they say "It's not always what you know, it's who you know." It can also work visa versa, people that are in your network can read your blogs, increasing your traffic and getting more of your ideas out there. If you are using
blogs for a business, this can be very beneficial for your company.
You should be attending today's Webinar
Simple Tips to Make Blog Content Work for You.
Content is key to a successful blog. As a business blogger I also understand the pain points of consistently creating
relevant content!
Here at Compendium we understand and we want to help.
That's why today our educational webinar hosted by Compendium CoFounder/CEO Chris Baggott
and Compendium Blogging Evangelist Doug Karr will focus on content.
Sign up to join the webinar today!
After graduating from college with a finance degree - I was always quite hesitant to get a 'real job' - because I thought I would be "stuck" sitting at a desk all day long and would not have time to enjoy the things that I liked best. However, working for a software as a service company - especially one with young energetic professionals - allows for a more relaxed atmosphere.
As our clients are calling our Success Management Team to talk about blog as a business and corporate blogging - Willow, my fun loving pup, barks out her tips in the background.
Okay - not all of that is true.... she doesn't actually bark out blogging best practices but she is the new Client Success Team mascot and brings a new level of joy to our workplace.
Why do we blog as a business? There are many different reasons this is important, but the number one reason is and should always be SEO, Search Engine Optimization. Winning those organic searches, proving ourselves with relevant content and then converting those readers to customers.
At Compendium we work to help our customers see the benefit of winning those organic searches. We first win the search with keywords blogs - topic driven blogs. Next, blogging as a business allows your employees to have a voice and and potential client to relate and connect to your employees. Finally, by proving yourself with strong, relevant content, we are able to easily convert readers into clients.
On the Client Success Team we often talk with administrators about motivating their bloggers. I wanted to share a great example of how the compendium administrators have motivated our team. This week’s motivator (or bribery depends how you look at it) is to have everyone create a post today so that we get breakfast as a company tomorrow. We have about 30 bloggers on our platform and already today we have 13 posts up for the day. This is a fun (and relatively inexpensive) way to motivate your bloggers and really work as a united front to blog as a business.
In the end we must remember that we are blogging as a business to increase our customer acquisitions and lead generation by being found more easily in search results. My job as a member of the Client Success Team is to work with clients to develop a customer acquisition strategy for their blogging program. We start the processes off by talking about overarching goals and program expectations. Once we have established our goals every step we take is towards accomplishing these goals weather we are defining keywords or discussing content creation strategies.
A great deal of time is also spent discussing Calls To Action - after all this is what actually delivers the leads. Stay tuned for my next post where I will discuss CTAs in more detail.
Well....it happened.....I was one of low men on the totem pole of content contribution last month to our corporate blog. So, instead of making a sour face I am going to take the lemons that were handed to me and make lemonade.
In all seriousness, I don't mind making a blogging example of myself. To use a Blog for SEO one of the most important factors is recency and frequency of updated content. To do that it is no blogging secret that you need to contribute content often. Last month I was a "blogging slacker" and everybody knew it.
One of the biggest problems associated with blogging for many companies is finding the resources. Luckily for me everybody at Compendium has a blog account so last month my teammates carried me.
The real issue for me last month wasn't resource. I had everything I needed to blog. I had top notch blogging creation software, tons of content, and the guidance I needed to make it all work together for search. I just didn't realize how my lack of contribution would result in a lot of blogging mockery when it was announced that I was the low man in front of the entire company. Therefore I personally was really only missing one thing...motivation to blog.
This month I know what my blogging motivation is.
Blogging as a business is fun. Not just because of the ability to share stories like this but also the atmosphere that it creates in the office. It is a good way to create some friendly competition but at the same time leverage a tool that can really drive your business.
Set blogging goals for your business, make it known when people hit those goals,.....AND WHEN THEY DON'T. Most importantly have fun with it!
Cheers to your future Blogging Success!!!
The concern a lot of companies have when starting their blogging initiative is content control. This is a very legitimate concern and unfortunately sometimes keeps companies from embarking on blogging.
So what should I consider when controlling content?
There are a few questions to ask yourself when controlling content and blogging for a business, the first of these should be;
is our company gaining a positive image from our blog?
Blogs are meant to be another (more human) way for people to connect with you and your employees, it should not be a way for your employees to get issues of their chest or talk about their crazy Saturday night. The goal is to talk about your products, services, incentives or clients and if you're putting your personality into those types of topics there should be no reason for controlling that type of content.
Secondly, ask yourself
; is my content relative to my business?
Along with generating content, humanizing your marketing and boosting SEO, the content you generate needs to be centered around something. Straying from your original idea won't help bring more readers to your blog. You have to remember that they are reading my post for a reason, to learn more about me and my products or service. If you don't talk about company related issues, people aren't going to hang in there for your next post. They want to get information immediately, thats why they landed on your blog in the first place.
Finally, always consider;
am I being descriptive enough?
The easiest way to have your blog found in search is to be descriptive. When people search for something in Google they use adjectives to describe what they're looking for. This is like winning the lottery for anyone writing content on a blog. When you're talking about your new product, use plenty of adjectives and remember to describe it as something you would search for in Google yourself. Never over think what you are trying to say, the more human you are in your writing, the more readers will relate to you.
Pop Quiz:1. What does WWSD mean?
2. Who are the best people within your organization to write blog content?
3. How can you organize blog content around topics instead of authors?
4. What's the difference between a website and blog?
5. What does "Compending" mean?
6. And finally, why is Compendium Co-Founder and CEO Chris Baggott stalking Seth Godin?Whether you're entirely new to corporate blogging or a business blogging expert, you'll find some great info and good laughs in Compendium's new video.
Without further ado:
View the "How Companies Should Blog" Video Here.
After viewing the video, a good next step in order to learn more about how to start a business blog is to fill in your information in order to talk to a blogging specialist. Enjoy!
I read an article in the Washington Post last week titled "
Marketing Moves to the Blogosphere: Business Model Shifts to Engage Customers Online." I had it bookmarked and went to comment on the article today, but the functionality was disabled. I sent an email to the writer, and am anxious to hear the reasoning behind that, but I doubt I'll get a response. This article was originally published on Aug. 25th... only 8 days ago. I assume that happens after an article reaches a certain point of "untimeliness", but I'm not even sure if I agree with that. Why wouldn't you allow user feedback 6 months after an article was written - is it no longer relevant?
Anyhow, I found the same article republished at the Hartford Courant, under the title "
Businesses See Blogs As Good Public Relations", and they had their comment function active. Here was my comment to the article:
I'm a big fan of Debbie Weil's blog, and her insights on corporate
blogging. However, I have to disagree with her statement that "using a
blog as a business strategy is that usually you cannot connect the dots
directly from blogs to revenue."
That is absolutely true with
traditional blogging platforms and strategies. However, with a platform
that is designed for corporate blogging, allowing multiple people
within an organization to create content, and organizing that content
for Search Engine Optimization, it is very much a tangible, measurable
marketing method.
Like Mr. Williams stated, blogs are a great
way to put a human face to a brand or institution. However, a corporate
blogging strategy can have a clear ROI just like a website,
Pay-Per-Click campaign, or other digital marketing activity. My
company, Compendium Blogware, specializes in corporate blogging
solutions, and has several case studies and Whitepapers that prove this
with real client data.
I encourage anyone interested in exploring the tangible "connecting of dots" from blogs to revenue, to visit www.compendiumblogware.com or read my personal blog at http://blogging.compendiumblog.com/blog/blogs-as-a-marketing-solution.
Eric Romer
Business Dev. Manager
Compendium Blogware
Compendium Blogware welcomes PRICE Systems into the blogging family. They are using blogging to win search engine optimization. PRICE Systems is blogging as a business and will soon reap the benefits of doing so.
What does PRICE do? They improve their customer's profitability by optimizing planning, budgeting and management. PRICE solutions accurately estimate the effort, schedule and cost of projects using unbiased models and benchmarks that eliminate inaccurate biases and misconceptions. As customers improve on their accuracy using PRICE, they realize better returns on investments and higher profits.
You can learn more about
PRICE by going to their blog. Hear what their employees have to say about PRICE and download both of their whitepapers!
As our Client Success team, the folks responsible for day-to-day work with our clients interact with current and soon to be clients, we get a frequent and re-occurring question … and it goes:
"We love Compendium and we “get” the blogging for search, but what’s the real difference between “blogging” and “blogging for business?”
It’s a simple question and it goes to the core of what Compendium stands for. And, the answer is equally simple and really can best be understood by understanding the division of writing for pleasure, as a hobbyist, what we like to call a “Citizen Journalist,” and blogging for results, or blogging for business.
Blogging for pleasure and blogging for results.
In talking with customers, I usually use myself as my own baseline or example.
I have a personal wine blog (www.goodgrape.com). I happen to like wine and I happen to like to write—hence, I view my blog as a hobby, a creative outlet.
Now, mind you, my blog has yielded some interesting results for me, the least of which are wine samples, wine books and other flotsam and jetsam that are sent to me in order to try and influence me, as others view me as an alpha-influencer.
This influencer model is great and typifies what thousands and millions of other people try to do—cultivate influence with loyal readership. In doing so, you get into a “jetstream” of community in the niche in which you write, but to get to the point where I am at today, (about 1000 - 1200 daily readers, a bunch of hits and pageviews, etc.) it has taken very consistent content creation (4-6 posts per week) and a lot of social networking over the course of 2.5 years.
While this is a fine model for individuals, it’s not that great of a model for businesses. It’s very difficult to get somebody in the marketing department to chew off on a two or three year “influencer” model, and with good reason.
However, and thankfully, the underpinning of Compendium is to blog for business. What that means is that instead of trying to cultivate a readership by writing good content that goes into a category bucket, you try to cultivate content for search engine optimization by writing good content that gets compended into a keyword blog (our equivalent of a category), so people who are searching for those “keywords” can quickly and easily find you in the search engines (Google dominates search) and then subsequently find something you are saying of value-- enough value to want and stay on your site for a while and do some other action that drives to a metric for your organization.
It’s very simple, but a very important paradigm shift in thinking. Social media, as an umbrella over a bunch of different things, including blogging, is great, but it’s really only great in business if it drives a result.
Many people will tell you that influence is the new currency, and they wouldn’t be completely wrong, but the part they don’t get right is that influence doesn’t equal a sales number and using your blog as a business tool to drive engagement with customers is very important, as well.
So, what is the real difference between blogging and blogging for business, or blogging for a purpose?
Results.
Blogging for a purpose with Compendium delivers the kind of results tied to a metric that can be delivered infinitely quicker than a two year slow burn of influence.
