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Blogging Best Practices - Call-to-Action Checklist

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry
With all the hype around social media, twitter this, and Facebook that, the end goal sometimes gets lost.  The motivation behind all of this social strategy for a business is to gain more leads, build a brand, generate more sales and revenue.

So how is the best way to accomplish that on your company's business blog? When individuals are searching the web they know exactly what they want and what they are looking for.  It is no accident when a visitor arrives at your site, as something they were searching for brought them there.  Utilizing the right words will drive those visitors to take action.
 
With Compendium, you can direct that traffic to take the next step via Calls to Action (CTA's for short).  Here is a quick check list to make sure your CTA is following best practices:

  • Does your CTA have a purpose?
  • Does your CTA have a benefit for the visitor?
  • Are you directing your traffic via a command?
  • Is there an obvious place for a reader to click?
  • Do you have a unique landing page available for this CTA?
  • Have you put the proper tracking measurements in place?

For prime examples, look to the right of this post to see Compendium's sidebar and our calls to action.  We try to use images that draw your attention, and make it obvious that its a button.  You'll also see that our landing pages are specific to our CTA's and are very simple.  That's because we don't want to distract a visitor to do anything else than focus on that landing page (fill out a form, download a whitepaper, view a demo, etc).

Think about the end goal for your blogging program and set up your CTA's accordingly.  Remember to capture the visitors that come to your site, and direct them to the next appropriate step. 



Championship Blogging

Thursday, March 11, 2010 by Ford McAlexander
One of the greatest days of the college basketball season is Selection Sunday which is when the NCAA picks 65 teams to play in the big tournament. This tournament is what we all fondly call March Madness or the Road to the Final Four. However, this tournament also creates inspiration for your company's blog! You can create your own blogging tournament like we have done at Compendium Blogware.

Heather, our blogging coordinator, has made a tournament with every department competing against each other. Then at the end of each week, a department is eliminated for their lack of blogging. Luckily, the Marketing department is leading in the 2nd week of the tournament but we still have to survive the last two weeks of the tournament. We, as the marketing department, pride ourselves on our blogging frequency and expertise so all the rest of the departments are trying to beat us.

I do not have any worry though that we will be victorious of our little tournament. Either way, blogging tournaments and incentives can really help your company's blog and add some fun to your corporate blogging strategy.

The Free Prize is Blogging

Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Kyle McGrath
My first introduction into the world of Seth Godin was the book Free Prize Inside. He articulates through its pages the premise of making your service or product worth talking about (make it "remarkable") and the word will spread. Seth's describes how this tactic is a lot more effective than traditional advertising which he refers to as "interruption media". The below graphic shows how the free prize is found.


 
In its simplicity, the more a company spends on technology and media the harder it is to find the free prize, which is the difference between the profit and break even point. So what a great entry point for blogging. Does your company offer a current product or service that may contain a free prize inside? Do you need the word to spread and a viral campaign to take shape? Compendium offers an affordable blogging software that enables the word to spread.

A blogging campaign should become apart of any new product or service's marketing strategy. Blogging is the vehicle that can drive excitement around a company's product, allowing that free prize to be found.



Quickness at Compendium

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Ford McAlexander
I don't care what anybody normally says about interning but interning is awesome especially when you get to work for a company that is growing as fast as Compendium Blogware. I was just scanning through our own corporate business blog and it is so interesting seeing what everybody has to say that day about what is going on in their day. From Jim Hyslop talking about hanging out with SEO guru, Jay Baer, to Jason Harvoth talking about why Compendium's business blog software is the right thing to do for your business.

It is so exciting to work here that you just kind of want to run around and tell everybody. Compendium Blogware has such a great software that when I got Starbucks today, everybody was so intrigued on what exactly Compendium does that I had to give my own little mini sales pitch on what we do. I doubt that lead is converting anytime soon but its just fun. Check out our company blog soon to see why our software could be the right answer for your company's business strategy.

Release Wednesday

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Abby Warner
While today was a release day, we made only one client facing change in this weeks release.  Now, as the Admin of your blog, when you view the Manage Keyword tab, a count for the total posts on your Uber or Main Company Blog.  Remember that these blog counts are updated nightly, so the numbers will not change each time a blog post is approved.  We do have something to look forward to next week when we will answer a client's request to have a CSV download of this table available.

It is so great to see each week we make progress on our product development and release new features.



Trusting Joel on Software? Yes. On Corporate Blogging? Not as much.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by P.J. Hinton

Joel Spolsky, one of the biggest names in software development blogging, has written a column for Inc. wherein he announces that he's giving up blogging. In his valedictory statement, he talks about how blogging companies aren't doing it right, and that while his business, Fog Creek Software, reaped benefits from his blog, he can't bring himself to recommend it to others because he thinks the value proposition just isn't there.

I've read Spolsky for a long time, and his blog posts have powered a lot of big discussions within the software development community. His writings on interviewing form the basis of our department's own candidate screening process. I count myself as one of his admirers, both for his ability to make good points and build a successful business, but this latest essay left me both agreeing and disagreeing.

Where He Gets it Right

Spolsky asserts that a lot of businesses get it wrong with respect to blogging, making the blog about the company's culture and internal activities rather than the customer's needs. In a misguided rush to "humanize" the company's image, marketing teams use their blogs as self-promotional life streams that mimic individual social media.

Citing remarks by game developer Kathy Sierra as inspiration, he says it's wrong to make the blog all about your company. Quoting Spolsky's column (emphasis mine):

If you make superior, single-source chocolate, don't write about that great trip you took to the Dominican Republic to source cocoa beans. That's all about you. Instead, write the definitive article about making chocolate-covered strawberries. For the next 10 years, whenever a gourmand or a baker searches Google for a recipe on how to make chocolate-covered strawberries, he or she will find your post. Helping your users make awesome chocolate-based confections is likely to attract readers who might buy fancy chocolate, and that's the point of a successful blog. Writing about trips to the Dominican Republic is going to attract only people who might want to travel to the Dominican Republic. Unless you're selling that, you shouldn't be blogging about it.

Long before there was Compendium, Spolsky was leveraging his blog in a way that Compendium advocates -- using the blog as stream of relevant, targeted content that persists over time and draws potential customers in to your product.

In retrospect, Joel on Software was essentially a small, perfectly targeted magazine for programmers with a certain pragmatic philosophy toward software development. It was also free advertising for my company, but the advertising actually looked a lot more like editorial content than anything else...
Once I had built an audience among programmers, enough of them turned into customers that I was able to get my bootstrapped company off the ground. The audience was so precisely defined that products we tried to make that weren't specifically for programmers pretty much flopped.
Where He Gets it Wrong

In the latter part of his column, Spolsky is skeptical of blogging's effectiveness for growing your business. He cites the time requirements of building a good blog and a series of corporate counterexamples that he says show that you can achieve marketing success without blogging.

This is where I start to disagree. He lists three of the big net successes -- Twitter, Facebook, and Google, all of which he says have horrible blogs, and Apple, which has virtually no blogging presence.

Holding up services that cost nothing to use doesn't make a strong case. These are things that people could try out for themselves and quickly decide whether they would stick with them.

When dollars and cents are involved, people will look around and do research before opening their wallets. They will depend on the advice of trusted friends. They will use search to locate possible solution providers. A blog which speaks to the potential customer's concerns goes a long way toward building that trust.

Apple is certainly an outlier. It's been around a long time, longer than the mainstream adoption of the net. It's customers tend to be fiercely loyal, and the rock-star status of Steve Jobs allows the company to get away with closedness moreso than the average business. The secretive nature of new product development fuels the mystique. You can't get away with this as easily if you're a new company with nary a reputation.

After reading this essay, I can't help but feel that Spolsky is throwing a baby out with the bathwater by abandoning blogging. Early on in the essay he writes that when the responsibility of blogging is distributed throughout the organization, the program runs out of steam from infrequent updates.

However, we know from our own experiences that when there is a program owner who oversees team motivation, momentum can be sustained over time. It also helps when the authors get fresh feedback over how their efforts contribute to the bottom line. Yes, it takes time, but it's probably not nearly as much as Spolsky envisions. You just have to hire people who are smart and get things done, something that he has written a time or two about. :-)

Enterprise Social Media and SEO

Friday, February 26, 2010 by Frank Dale
At Compendium we have the opportunity to be at the forefront of enterprise adoption of social media tools.  This is an email I sent to our sales team last night that shows why we are so excited.

Team,
 
This article shows that the Fortune 100 are beginning to adopt social media.  A couple of key passages:
 
“A study by Burson-Marsteller finds that 79 percent of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune Global 500 index are using social media tools.”

“Fifty-percent of the Fortune 100 companies from the Asia Pacific have blogs. Burson-Marsteller says Asian companies prefer blogging due to the control they can have over the conversation.  Only 11% of active U.S. company blogs had posts in the past three months as compared to 83% of European blogs and 77% of Asia-Pacific blogs. The U.S. blogs also had fewer blog posts."The results show the increasing popularity of the real-time web and its use across the enterprise. But is it smart not to update a blog? We wonder what company fares better. The one that is active on its Twitter account and its blogs or the one that has an active Twitter account but infrequently updates its blog?”
 


This is great news for Compendium, because we solve a major problem….we give the marketer control over the conversation in a secure, scalable environment.  The administrative control we provide coupled with platform security make marketers feel comfortable sharing the content creation responsibility with more people than ever before.  Companies with few blog posts all have one thing in common….only one or two bloggers.  We solve this problem in a way that works for the marketer and the company.  Final takeaway, this trend is not just happening in the US…it is a global movement.   
 

Cheers,
 
 
Frank


In a global market, you can't afford to fall behind the competition.  Check out our new whitepaper on Third Generation Corporate Blogging to learn more about the best customer acquisition strategy available.

Is Blogging in our DNA? Nope, We Still Need a Coach

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by Brian Millis
Many times on the phone with prospect clients, I get the sense that they think that blogging is part of our DNA making it easy for us to say that writing a couple posts a week is simple.  However, the folks here at Compendium are no differnt than our clients and other corporate blogging companies around.  I don't wake up in the morning with THE great idea and motivation to blog.  However, because my own livelihood is directly tied to our inbound lead generation strategy using the very platform that I sell, I find time to blog in order to avoid being a hypocrite.  The Blogging Coach

Luckily, our platform makes it easy to understand and connect to a hard ROI.  And we have wonderful people, like Heather in marketing who spur us along.  In fact, I thought I would share a recent email from Heather to show you that even a blogging company needs fun and creative ways to continue the content charge. I hope this helps other companies learn how to effectively write helpful content while connecting that effort to an overall search marketing strategy.  

Hi Team!
 
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to complete the Motivation to Blog Survey – We had 23 participants. The results are at the end of this email. With these results, I will tailor blogging contests to your preference in hopes to increase individual participation and to overachieve our company program goals of content creation and lead generation.
 
Just a few quick points I want to share about the future direction of our internal blogging program:
 
1.    In an effort to increase awareness of our monthly company blogging goals as well as company efforts in meeting these goals, starting March 1st there will be a weekly content contribution report on your desk every Monday. This report will display:
a.    Monthly goal for # of blog posts submitted
b.    Month-to-date total # of blog posts submitted by company
c.    Department breakdown of total blog posts submitted month-to-date
d.    Individual breakdown of total blog posts submitted month-to-date
 
2.    Additional Keyword research and testing in an effort to create not only high quantity of blog posts but high quality blog posts as well.
 
3.     Monthly lunch and learn sessions to provide tips, ideas and open communication for content creation, motivation, blogging success and overall program suggestions.
 
4.    WE ONLY HAVE 5 BUSINESS DAYS TO SUBMIT 18 POSTS AS A COMPANY TO MEET THIS MONTH’S GOAL. I know together we can reach this goal by the end of the week! Please refer to Sarah’s  “Best Places to Work” email sent today or the resource library on our website for additional content ideas. Thanks in advance for working together as a team to reach the company’s goal.  ~Heather

Is Your Company Blogging?

Thursday, February 18, 2010 by Kelly Simon
How can blogging for business support your company's marketing efforts?  It's simple, increase the probability of prospects finding your product or service by implementing a blog for business.  

The article, 'Blog Benefits: Traffic, Links and Indexed Pages,' neatly summarizes the power of blogging for search.  Companies with a blog have:
  • 55% more visitors
  • 97% more inbound links
  • 434% more indexed pages 
True, a successful blogging program requires a commitment to generating interesting and relevant content, but consider the alternative...you could do nothing and let your competition win out time and again in search.  See what blogging can do for your company with Compendium Blogware's powerful blogging software.
    
 
 

When it comes to search marketing, "volume matters"

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Stephanie West
Compendium's CEO/CoFounder, Chris Baggott coined this phrase in a recent company meeting.  Honestly, it's one of the strongest points that I took away from the meeting. 

Generating enough blog content is such an important aspect of maximizing your search engine optimization results.  Your company could be utilizing Compendium's easy to use blog software, but your search engine optimization strategy is not very effective if you are not generating enough blog content to sustain your blog. 

Companies that are looking for a corporate blogging software platform to maximize their search engine optimization results should consider Compendium's powerful blogging software. 

Compendium's simple blogging software is an asset to any company's inbound marketing strategy.  The blog content is automatically structured for search engine optimization.  This feature makes Compendium unique from other blogging software.  Although the content is automatically structured, that doesn't mean that it is automatically generated.  Clients still need to generate an adequate amount of blog content.  Once the content is generated, it will be automatically structured for maximum search engine optimization results. 

So, ultimately, "volume matters"... You must generate blog content in order to reach maximum search engine optimization results. 

Click here for more information on why content matters. 

Spending Money to Make Money

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Jason Harvoth
This adage is very familiar to those who spend time at casinos.  Taking a set amount of money and placing on RED; or dropping coins into a slot machine; or even purchasing that lottery ticket after a fill up.  In all situations you have to spend money to make money, and more times than not...there is no return on your investment.

I speak to several business minds every day, and they are all looking for the same thing.  "How do I spend the right resources to reap the maximum benefit?"  Some companies are blogging to capture more of a following, and some are spending resources on SEO strategies.  In both instances, these client are reaping some benefit, but not maximizing their investments.

Compendium's simple blogging software that contains SEO tools is the best of both worlds.  Our powerful blogging software not only makes it easier for your company to capture new business, it actually (shh...don't tell anyone) works.  It works so well, in fact, that a recent client actually received a 300% return on investment in 1 month.

Yes, you have to spend money to make money, but call us to receive a case study of our successful clients.  Make 2010 the year you stopped being a reactive marketer, and started proactively taking control of your client acquisition.

Call me 317.777.6268 to find out more.

Multi-user blogging is a lot like group puzzle making.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by mikey mioduski
Every person who's ever started a blog has probably had a brief lapse where they neglected the crap out of their blog. If you make a living as a professional blogger of hot new gossip, being an unreliable provider of juice might dent your traffic. And in turn, your income. Your return visitor rates probably mean a lot to you.

But if you are a contributor to your company's blog, and your contributions have been hard to make due to external factors, or sheer laziness, you're in a much better position. You see, it's never too late to pick back up where you left off, because when you empower your entire company to pitch into your business blog, you aren't relying on one person or one voice. You are actually casting a wider net with your entire team, and as a result, your visitors tend to be new to your blog-- having found you through search. So the return traffic isn't as important.

And if you're using a smart and easy multi-user blogging platform, like ours, your other team members can keep on posting until you find your piece again.

It reminds me of this incredible graphic I found yesterday for Clayton Stobbs, a Business Development Manager here at Compendium. The stock image showcases four business people carefully assembling a multi colored foam puzzle. It might not be exactly like group blogging, but what I'm getting at here is this: I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a while. But thank you to the Compendiumites who've kept it up.


group blogging is very similar to group puzzle making

Nice work team.






Secrets to Business Blogging Success

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 by Heather Benfield
Everyone loves a great success story, right? When educating and inspiring others about blogging best practices, I feel there is no greater way than to provide real-life examples of companies who’ve experienced great success in what you’re looking to do.

With that being said, I’m excited to pass along this story about one of our clients who has hit their corporate blogging program out of the park!

Widen Enterprises, a leader in graphic communications, launched their corporate blogging program  in December 2007 to target organic keywords in search and increase online lead generation.

After developing a list of industry specific keywords their target audience was using in search, Widen used Compendium's blogging software to create different blogs containing content related to each keyword. In just three short months, 75% of their target keyword blogs were ranking on the first page of Google search results. This wide-spread exposure generated up to 50% conversion rates for Widen’s blogging program. Due to the great success, Widen increased their keyword blog amount (via Compendium) to cast an even larger net in organic search.

What is Widen’s secret to success? By implementing blogging best practices, they are able to track, measure and adjust their blogging strategy. This allows them to economically and efficiently utilize their resources in order to over-achieve goals and objectives.

Best practices include:

•    Implementation of necessary analytics to track blog traffic from visit to sales pipeline.
•    Consistent testing of Blog Call-To-Action’s (CTA’s).
•    Pulse on keywords driving organic traffic and additions when necessary
•    Consistent content creation among 8 employee contributors

Currently, Widen’s company blogs consistently perform as one of their top lead generation sources, accounting for over 60% of web referral leads by driving traffic to their website from blog CTA’s. By establishing goals, targeting keywords and following best practices, any company large or small is able to deliver the same results through corporate blogging.

Hats off to Widen Enterprises for implementing a successful corporate blogging strategy!

If you have a business blogging success story you’d like me to share, email me at hbenfield@compendium.com.

Three Unique Ways to Generate Leads through Corporate Blogging

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 by Heather Benfield
Just because it’s called a “Corporate Blog” doesn’t mean you have to be a big corporation with a large marketing budget to start a blogging program. Businesses of all shapes and sizes are launching company blogs and seeing great success!

Check out these three unique and creative ways Compendium Clients are utilizing blogs to increase online lead generation:

 
Travel/Tourism Industry

Virginia State Parks uses a “web to post” feature on their blogs that allows visitors to upload pictures and share stories about their state park visits. Visitors must provide contact information to use the web to-post feature allowing Virginia State Parks to collect information about their blog readers.

Blog URL: http://blog.virginiaparks.org

Restaurant Industy


Monon Coffee Company, a small coffee shop in Indianapolis, IN, embeds YouTube video clips into their blog to share customer testimonials. After prospects watch the video clips, they are instructed to “Submit Your Drink Suggestion” by way of a sidebar call-to-action (CTA). This CTA leads to a landing page with a web submission form where Monon Coffee is able to collect contact information in order to follow up with prospective leads.

Blog URL: http://mononcoffee.compendiumblog.com

Software/Technology Industry

Avectra, a leading provider of on demand association management software, seamlessly integrates their blogs into their website by linking all website landing pages, Call-To-Action’s (CTA’s) and social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. This allows users to easily navigate between Avectra’s blog and website to obtain all information they may be looking for - of course without providing their contact information first.

Blog URL: http://blog.avectra.com

If you’ve considered starting a blog for your company but aren’t sure how to integrate it into your marketing strategy, I recommend downloading the “Considering Blogging?” Whitepaper by Compendium Blogware.

This Whitepaper answers basic questions about business blogging - such as how to drive demand for your organization’s product or services and start personal relationships with prospective customers through blogs. Let me know what you think!

How Small Businesses are Ranking #1 in Google Search Results

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 by Heather Benfield
Check out some of Compendium’s successful clients! These small and local business blogs are ranking #1 in Google search results. Go ahead, try it out. Type any of the below keywords in Google search and see their company blogs show up in the #1 organic results spot.

BabyPlus Prenatal, LLC- A prenatal education curriculum.

Target Keywords: Benefits of Infant Stimulation, Critical Times in Child Development, Early Brain Development During Pregnancy, Having a smart baby, Infant Growth Assessment, Prenatal Care Curriculum
Blog URL: http://blog.babyplus.com

Cantaloupe – An Indianapolis, IN based media firm.

Target Keywords: Indiana Media Firms, Indianapolis Video Advertising, Indianapolis Video Management, Media firms in Indianapolis, Online Media Firms, Website Video Firms
Blog URL: http://blog.cantaloupe.tv

Fairytale Brownies – A direct-mail gourmet brownie business.

Target Keywords: Brownie Test, Kitchen, Customer Brownie Stories, Delivery Brownies, Food Start Ups Advice, Order Brownies
Blog URL: http://blog.brownies.com

So how are these small businesses winning the coveted #1 organic spot on Google?

By using Compendium’s corporate blogging platform, they’re able to target hundreds or thousands of long tail (a term coined by Chris Anderson) keywords in their blogs rather than only the top 10 or 20 short tail keywords their target audience uses.
 
In a blog post by Compendium’s CEO, Chris Baggott, he says that “56% of all keyword queries are now three word phrases or more.” Chris also believes that blogs targeting long tail keywords are getting found in search results by people who are specifically looking for the information provided in the posts. This generates highly qualified leads and larger conversion rates.

But how do BabyPlus, Cantaloupe and Fairytale Brownies have the time and money to target hundreds or even thousands of keywords, you might ask? They use Compendium’s business blogging software that automatically multiplies and organizes their blog content the ideal way search engines read and rank results. This allows even the smallest blogging programs to be successful without big company resources.

To learn more about long tail vs. short tail keywords, check out this helpful article by MarketingHub.info.

To schedule a demo of Compendium's business blog software, click here.

 

Blog Marketing Content (Part 3): The Buyer’s Journey or How to Know Where Blogging Fits into Your Marketing Program

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Frank Dale
Buying is a process or in Hugh Macfarlane’s words a “journey”.  If you understand that simple concept, you have an opportunity to benefit by being part of that process.  Customers go through stages from being unaware they have a problem, to acknowledging the problem, to searching for a solution, and finally purchasing a solution.  As a marketer your job at the highest level is to accomplish these three things:

•Understand the need your customer is trying to meet (What job are you being hired to do?)
•Understand the buying process your customer employs to meet that need
•Design a marketing and sales process that aligns with your customer’s buying process

If you understand your customer’s buying process, you can begin to see where blogging fits into that process.  For many companies blogging provides the most value after a potential customer already knows they have a problem.  This is because the majority of potential customers find corporate blogs via search.  At the point the potential customer gets to your blog, they are already aware that they have a problem.  We know this because they entered a specific set of search terms in an attempt to find a solution to that problem.

If you understand the potential customer’s buying process, you can write content that answers the questions that are relevant to the buyer at that point in the process.  The best source of content will be conversations with your customers.  Ask customers what they thought about when they evaluated your product.  For example, what information did they look for to decide whether or not your product was credible? Was it a customer testimonial or analyst recommendation?  When you understand the process your customer uses, you can then tell your story from the perspective of the customer.  You can answer the potential customer's questions by telling them what a current customer wanted to achieve and describe how you provided that outcome. 

Your goal is to provide enough value from the customer’s perspective that the customer is willing to take the next step in the their buying process.  If you provide value and understand the buying process, the customer will click on your blog’s call-to-action and proceed to the next step.  It really is that simple.  If you would like to learn more about how corporate blogging can help you acquire customers, check out our free whitepaper on blogging's role in SEO and social media.

Blogging for Business

Thursday, January 21, 2010 by Kelly Simon
Blog BoardA successful blog means different things to different 
marketers.  Maybe your ultimate goal is to increase traffic to your site through your blog or give a voice to the people in your company.  Maybe you measure success on ROI and the number of clients who download your webinars or whitepapers. 

Whatever your metrics of success, make sure your calls to action help your search marketing efforts and generate business (or awareness). 

Here are some things to consider when blogging for your business:

1.  Establish Goals:  It's simple, the goals you establish will set the tone for the life of your blog.  Meet with your marketing team to determine your most important business drivers.  Once your goals have been established, create a home for them on your blog in the form of calls to action.  (Make sure you're tracking your goals so you know where you're seeing success...see below.)

2.  Track Your Goals:  Once you've pinpointed your blog's goals make sure you track them.  Tracking goals will allow you to see what people are interested in and where you can convert interest to sales. 

3.  Blog!:  An often overlooked blogging best practice...blog!  No matter how you swing it, content creating is key.  Set team expectations up front so your blog sees immediate success AND your team understands their commitment.  Inspire your team to blog by providing incentives and/or creating contests centered around your company's blog program.  Like putting on pants in the morning, blogging should become a part of your marketers' daily routine. 

Blogging is one of the best ways to be found through search.  Keep your content fresh, establish your expectations and make sure you track your goals!  Until next time...
 

Will You Be Our 1st Featured Client?

Friday, January 15, 2010 by Compendium Client Marketing
Now that the new year has arrived, we want to be sure that our clients are staying up to date on all the happenings here at Compendium.  To help make that happen, we'll be launching a new and improved monthly client newsletter.

You'll be receiving this newsletter at the end of each month and it will be jampacked with information and fun blogging tips and tricks to help you stay on track with your blogging goals.

We believe it's very important to give credit to our clients who are seeing amazing results or running exciting blogging programs.  We want to showcase these clients in our new client newsletter. We will have a section dedicated to a different client each month.  It will contain information on your outstanding blogging program and a link to your company blog.

If you like what you hear and would like to nominate your company for the January 2010 Client Newsletter, click here to fill out the short submission form.  You will have until Friday, January 22, 2010 to fill out the form. The winning company will be featured in our 1st newsletter that will be sent next week. So keep an eye on your inbox for our newsletter to see who is featured!


*If you have any questions about the submissions, please email us at clientmarketing@compendium.com or contact your client success manager.



The Colts and Social Media

Friday, January 15, 2010 by Allison Bowen
As any Colts fan knows, this is one important weekend for football.  If you're not a football fan, I'll clue you in - this weekend is the first playoff game for the Indianapolis Colts!  This Saturday night at 8pm, the Colts will face off versus the Baltimore Ravens.  And let's hope the outcome is a good one...

You might be wondering what in the world this has to do with a blog software program or blogging in general.  What does any form of social media have to do with a playoff game? 

Well let me give you a few examples of the social media hype surrounding the big game:

1.)  The Indianapolis Howl at the Moon manager decided to make a few comments online and open his bar to Ravens fans.  The result?  A "Boycott Howl at the Moon" Facebook group was formed that now has nearly 4,500 members.  Even the local news media covered the story.  

2.)  The Twitter wars are on.  Nearly every tweet that appeared on my Twitterfeed today had something to do with the "#Colts".  For example:  "spamspam RT @whelanandealin: It's really cute, all these #Ravens fans who think they're not going to get LIT UP by the #Colts tomorrow (via @GusSent)"

3.)  And of course there's the blogging...  You can find blogs on every topic under the sun that relates to the match up.  Check out the "18 to 88" blog for example.   


Now think about this - what if your company received even a quarter of the social media coverage that this game has generated?  What would that do for your company's sales?  Blogging is a great place to start when diving into the world of social media.  Contact Compendium today to see how our easy to use blog software can change your business. 

And just in case you haven't had enough of the Colts, check out these comics!  GO COLTS!



 
View this gallery at The Indianapolis Star: Gary Varvel: The Big Blue Review

Blogging Equals Search Engine Results

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry
I was reading an article on Social Media Examiner today where they are interviewing Steve Rubel, the VP of Edelman Digital.  Rubel is an advisor of social media strategy for companies such as Pepsi, Dannon, HP and Microsoft.

In the interview, I was blown away at Rubel's response to blogging.  He claims that blogging is dead and that the way to go is "streaming".  By streaming he means - Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. 

*Ahem....pulling up soap box to stand on*

Now while I agree that every company should have a well-rounded social media strategy, that strategy also includes blogging - and not just cause I work for a blogging platform. Why you ask?

Because the one thing that blogging accomplishes is being found in search.  Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook included, allow a business to be in the community, allowing you to respond and have a quick easy way to update happenings while on the road perhaps.  However the thing they do not do is allow your site to be found on multiple, hundreds, thousands of search phrases that people are searching on every single day.

Yes, your Twitter account may come up for your name, but that means the visitor was already looking for your company - they already knew you.  What about all the consumers and potential customers out there that have no idea who you are and are looking for you? 

They are turning to a search engine to find their answer - not Twitter, not YouTube, not Facebook.  They are searching for terms like "low calorie yogurt" or "ideal pc for home office", not company names.

Blogging is DEFINITELY not dead - it is only just beginning.  Bottom line?  If you want to be found in the organic search results for multiple keyword phrases, you need to have a blog.  Using a powerful blogging platform like Compendium and this whole blogging thing gets even easier because our platform does all the heavy lifting for you - allowing you to get back to to your job and making the company even more successful.

*stepping off soap box*

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