Here is a great tag line from a prospect email I received:
If You Can't Measure It, You Can't Manage It!
One thing I fail to do is include a catchy tag line at the end of my email signature. How do you even come up with a good tag line that will capture someone's attention? In my opinion, a good tag line should relate directly to your individual role or company. For example, here is the new tag line from a colleague's email here at Compendium:
"We're not a blogging company, we're a search company."
She took this quote from a short company email from our CEO, Chris Baggott . What a great place to find a good tag line for your email! It gives a reader something to think about and addresses a common misconception that we deal with on a daily basis as we develop and grow our new business client base. Just like a good company blog, a catchy email tag line can be an opportunity for human content to connect in a one-to-one manner.
So now, I am on a mission to create the Brian Millis Email Tag Line. I want it to portray the message that Compendium's platform can help any size business learn how to start a business blog. We can help add a true strategy to help you reach your blogging goals. We can be your coach on Blogging Best Practices. It is still amazing to me how our corporate blogging software makes it so easy to blog, get found in search, and convert.
It's sometimes hard for us to say this; I mean, after all ---- we are a blogging company, so our advice always seems subjective...but it makes sense - blogging is the center of your social media universe!
Lately, we are getting more involved in large companies that are looking at their entire social media strategy and we de facto become consultants in this realm. Let's not forget, Compendium is a customer acquisition tool --- focused on winning organic search. That's step one in our eyes, acquire new customers!
So how do blogging and social media relate? One thing I catch myself saying a lot is "at the end of the day...the content is the most expensive piece or free - depending on what your employees would otherwise be doing or are already doing - regardless, how do you make the most of that content?" First, is choose a blogging platform that is going to optimize and organize that content for Google in the best way. Second, re purpose it! Use your blog content in email (as Chris said, "The Original Social Media"); link to your posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. (you can automate all of this, so now all you have to do is post to your blog and ta da).
One thing I can say is that there is a bit of an issue with "pushers" in social media (especially Twitter - maybe?)...so don't forget to also be aware of the conversations going around you --- site your own posts when appropriate in these conversations. I don't need another Facebook friend or follower on Twitter (of course, I like them...) but I could use more leads and referrals (always) - a blog is a place where I can see a real conversion not just another "friend".
This month has been one of my favorites at Compendium. Why? Because I've had the opportunity to bring on my largetst number of small businesses who are ready to start a blogging strategy.
Many larger, Fortune 500 Companies are venturing into the blogosphere and seeing tremedous success. Below is a quote from a California news article:
“It appears that those companies that have made the decision to bloghave utilized the tool well. There is frequent posting, ongoing discussion and the ability to follow the conversation easily through RSS or subscriptions,” stated Barnes. “Those F500 companies that have taken the leap into the blogosphere represent all the things that make social media great.
It is wonderful that larger companies have the man power and internal capabilites to get a successful blog strategy in place. But what about the small business? What about the one or two person blogging companies?
Well, with Compendium's blogging solution, small companies can see tremendous success as well. Our SEO tools on the user interface make content creation easy and fast. All they have to do is write about the business and submit. We'll take care of the rest.
Check us out if you'd like to see a demo of how small businesses can make a blog one of their best marketing tools.
Here at Compendium Blogware we are constantly searching for new ways to help our customers come up with ideas for new blog content. What if we could come up with technology that could just write their posts for them?
I've been experimenting with using markov chain software to create brand new posts based on existing content. I fed it everything written by Senior Software Engineer and prolific blogger, PJ Hinton, and the resulting Robo-PJ had a lot of very interesting things to say.
Robo-PJ is very candid about his early days at our company:
"Prior to joining Compendium, I can say there is no one right way to build user-friendly blog software. The transition proved to be antithetical toward that which makes blogs interesting."
He is very opinionated about how people are using our blogging software, perhaps placing blame on the very technology we use behind the scenes:
"Don't let your blog become a web marketer? It means that you have a chance to make sure that many a peril await those who gathered, dreamed up, and analyzed the information, those other parties have often themselves been shortchanged by the Yahoo User Interface library, XSLT, XML/HTML DOM, memcache, XML-RPC web services, RSS search feeds, just to become a one-way channel of communication with it's customers."
Robo-PJ makes strangely dark jokes about articles he has read:
"The story leads off well by asking readers to talk about the benefits of reuse comes at a conference that is as well as individual blogs. These topics are selected based on the "electric shock" feature, though. :-)"
He provides some unusual advice for blogging companies:
"His strongest argument is about tying corporate blogs to its full promise, service providers will need to build up a cheap book titled burps and Technorati."
The truth is, I'm pretty skeptical about some of Robo-PJ's sage wisdom:
"Compendium's approach to the bottom line? Be relaxed in your proofreading. That's just a search engine."
I don't think this technology is quite ready for prime time.
So you have all heard about this "Humanize Your Marketing" stuff, but what does it really mean? No it's more than just putting your employee pictures on your advertisments. It's about reaching out to your customers, making your marketing efforts connect wtih your customers on a human based level. Believe it or not, people buy from people.
Let me give an example...
If you were to go to the hardware store looking for nail gun. Obviously, you don't know much about nail guns because you aren't a carpenter. I mean.. it is a big investment (if you haven't looked at the price of nail guns... check out your local hardware store the next time you are there.) So are you going to just pick up the one that looks the best?
No... you aren't
You are going to do some research, ask other people that have a nail gun, and most importantly you are going to ask the guy that is walking around the tool section of the hardware store with the neat looking apron on because he knows.
I know this is purely hypothetical, but it works still the same.
So when you are looking to invest in some product or service are you going to just pick the one that has attractive advertisments? Go do your research.... Google it. You'll find companies that are blogging to reach that human element. Blogging companies are reaching through the computer, making their interaction with customers much more than an electronic relationship.
Working for a blogging company I do spend some time reading and studying other business blogs. The one thing that I have noticed that I value when reading other business blogs is when relevant resources are provided for me to either download or sign up for.
Providing resources to your readers can be very powerful, especially if you can supply something that is authored from your company. This will encourage your readers to learn more about your company or the services you provide and isn't that one of the reasons why you're blogging in the first place?
This strategy can also be a great way of tracking how many people come to your blog and are interested in learning more about what your company can offer.
Next time you get ready to write a blog post consider focusing on your companies latest resource. This will give your readers something new, while expanding their knowledge of your company.
My charge for you today is to really think about WHY you are starting a blog. As some of you know I recently started a blog on one of the free platforms out there and I have been blogging about my free blog set up process on my Compendium blog. So far it has been o.k. A few challenges here and there but nothing too difficult to over come. The reason I can say that is because the obstacles I have faced so far have been around the bells and whistles of the blog....NOT the optimization of the blog.
I actually started the blog for my wife to be able to post family updates and communicate with her network of friends that share her same enjoyment of scrapbooking. The intent of this blog was NOT for her to make money with her blog. If that was the case, my tune may sound a little bit different when it comes to the success of my blog set with my measure of success based on search ranking.
If you plan on using your blog for an author-centric purpose these platforms do the trick. Minimal fees for your bells and whistles, help from multiple forums that involve others who have or are experiencing the same problems as you, some custom design and templates if you are willing to add the charge to your bill...and most importantly a spot, one single spot, on the web to communicate your thought.
NOW.......
On the other hand if you are a business who wants to leverage their blog for SEO and ROI, a business who needs ultimate control over content and messaging, or, you are a business that doesn't want or care to spend the time manually managing a blog to drive the business you need to substantiate the effort then you need a different type of solution. You need a Compendium solution.
I have had a lot of people ask me since I set up her blog "Jim you work for an awesome blogging company, why didn't you just use Compendium for her blog?" My answer to that is "it isn't the proper tool for her need. I wouldn't use a flat head screw driver to turn a phillips head screw." It's not that I couldn't, it is that it would take a really long time and chances are the screw would be crooked and not as tight as it could be if you know what I mean.
The point here is before you begin blogging, before you pigeon hole yourself with the wrong type of solution, understand what you are building. Then you can make sure to use the right tools for the job.
Company blogs are important to a company's marketing strategies. You can better reach consumers by humanizing your marketing with company blogs. Company blogs should not be detached from your company website, because it would defeat the whole purpose. If you detach them from your website and just link to your website in the blogs, the consumer is less likely to actually look at your website. Conversely, if you have your blogs attached to the parent site, when they see that their are human beings in the business world, talking to them on a personal level via blogs, connecting with them on that personal level... people are more likely to look through your website to solve their problem they are having.
It goes without saying that people buy from people. By having company blogs you are making those people see the human side of your company. Your employees are talking about real life things that they encounter daily. They are talking about their job, your product or service, and your company. Compendium Blogware helps companies do exactly this with blogging software. By business blogging, a company can win internet searches, the searches that consumers are doing trying to solve a problem. If your company website is at the top of those search results, the consumer will be more likely to check out your website in order to solve their problem
I hear it everyday in my role as a Client Success Manager, "I can't", "I don't have enough time", "I am too busy". PJ, our Senior Software Engineer at Compendium, wote a fantastic blog post about a useful little site called Dr. Wicked's Writing Lab. It is a website designed to force you to write. No excuses can be had on this site, they will not have it.
When you get to the homepage, all you have to do is fill in the box with your goals. Your goals are: word goal, time goal, and what setting you would like it on. You can chose from a variety of intensity levels such as Gentle Mode, Normal Mode, Kamikaze Mode, and Electric Shock Mode. This site is not only amuzing, but it is extremely helpful.
Some of our Client Success Managers tested this out today and found out how usefull it is when creating a blog post. Even though we are a blogging company it can be difficult to find time to write. This is something my clients struggle with daily and this tool can be a fun way to manage your time. Next time you are writing, visit the site and see how it can work for you.
The marketing industry is much like technology, things are constantly changing and you can never feel ahead of the curve. I'm sure every company has felt the strain of keeping up with the newest marketing trends.
Blogging has been characterized as a fleeting trend in an effort to try new marketing efforts. And not only labeled a trend, but a trend that won't last. I find it hard to believe that blogging is just a trend, not only for the fact that I work at a blogging company, but for the simple fact that we have dozens of clients that see the great benefits that blogging has to offer every day. Many of which have the revelation that blogs can be more useful then an actual company website.
When you work for a blogging company and see new clients join the Compendium family daily you gain a renewed sense that blogging is here to stay for the long haul. I would suggest jumping on the bus before it's full!
If you need a little more research on the benefits that business blogging has to offer check out our Whitepaper: Considering Blogging?
I'm frequently accused of being anti-brand. I want to set the record straight that branding is important, not critical to online marketing success. In the old days, branding alone could make the sale. Not true anymore. Today at best, branding earns you consideration...if you are in the right place at the right time. Which is where a great search strategy comes in. Gerry Randall cornered me on Monday and told me that he's seen search results lift conversions 3x after a concentrated branding effort....I'll dig in to that and report later.
Meantime, I saw a great post by Gord Hotchkiss yesterday. Gord tells us that most search has nothing to do with Brand and in fact people search hoping for an alternative. If the Brand doesn't show up in the top results, it's probably a lost opportunity:
"When I use a search engine for consumer
research, I'm thinking in terms of the specific thing I'm looking for,
not a specific brand. Generally, when I start, I will not use a branded
search term. I am building a consideration set. Yes, I likely have
brands I have an affinity for, but I won't explicitly include them in
my query. I'm looking for the search engine to provide me some
alternatives to consider. Typically, searchers will look at four to
five results before making their selection. These are usually the top
sponsored, and the top two or three organic, results. This represents
the prime and very limited "shelf space" of the search results page. If
a brand appears that the consumer has an existing affinity for, the
chances are good that the site will capture a click-through. If the
brand doesn't appear, the company has likely lost the opportunity to
connect with a consumer that will soon be ready to buy."
Well said Gord, and a great arguement for a widespread corporate blogging strategy focused on search. Blog Companies; meaning organizations that are focused on empowering many if not all of their employees to participate in a passionate, informed dialog about the company, it's products and soultuions will find great success in organic search accross a wide range of topics. The main point is to be human without being too commercial. Another quote from Gords post:
"....the act of searching is done with the left
brain. It is a rational, logical interaction, not an emotional one.
That's why text-based advertising does well, and graphic or rich media
doesn't. We're intellectually engaged in a task, and we're looking for
information that will help us succeed in accomplishing that task. We're
not looking to be influenced by an emotionally charged message. In
fact, we block anything that smacks of overt commercialism or looks
like advertising out of our consideration."
This is why business blogging is so powerful. Well organized blog content will not only help you rank highly on the wide range of targeted terms, but blogging win's the engagement (called conversion in the business world) with not-too-commercial human content that talks about the thing I searched on. Learn more about Corporate Blogging Best Practices at Compendium Blogware.
I just recently finished reading Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere and was amazed to learn where blogging is today and where it has come from! The article is a study on the trends and themes of blogging. It covers a variety of topics including the diversity of people that are blogging and the assortment of things they are blogging about. Since I work for a blogging company, I’m often a bit biased about the amount of people that are blogging and the general population’s knowledge of blogging. My friends and family are quick to remind me that not everyone cares as much about blogging as I do!
But the truth is that a lot of people do care and have been blogging for quite some time now.
This was one of my favorite quotes from the article, taken from Shel Israel, co-author of Naked Conversations, “Until recently, 'the Blogosphere' referred to a small cluster of geeks circled around a single tool. Now it refers to hundreds of millions of people using a vast warehouse of tools that allow people to behave increasingly online like they do in real life. We have entered the Age of Normalization in the Blogosphere.”
While blogging used to only be a thing for early adopters- the few who saw the benefits of blogging early on- it is now used by millions. Literally, one study found that 94.1 million people in the US have read a blog while 22.6 million people are actually bloggers themselves. Another study stated that 77% of internet users read blogs.
And these numbers are sure to continue to grow. Many people predict that in the future nearly everyone will have their own blog, and that in the next ten years blogs will replace newspapers. All of these statistics certainly support why it’s so important for a company to blog for their business. If not for all of the many other benefits blogging for business can provide, at least do it because everyone else is. (After all… wasn’t that the main reason for doing things while you were in high school?)
Where do your customers and employees call home? I live in Muncie, Indiana and I work in Indianpolis, Indiana. Businesses in both cities want me to keep my dollars there. They both want me to buy high margin products that at the end of the month equal profit. Ultimately, both Muncie and Indianpolis want to be my one and only. Let the courtship begin.
Both of you communicate to me differently, but neither of you speak to the specific interests of me and my family. You both like to linger in generalities about yourself. That's just not enough to earn my committment. I want to know that you know me, and have attributes that speak to me. How are you communicating that? Are you communicating that to just me?
When I search for things I am interested in, how often do I find a human element to the content? The answer is, not very often. If Muncie were Blogging for Search Optimization I would have had a much more satisfying search. It would have landed me in a place where a real conversation can begin.
I work at a Blog company, so it is easy for me to consider Blogging as the secret to winning my business. That being said, look at the results page when you search for nearly anything. Click on one of the Blogs listed in the organic search results. Notice how much personality the content has. It's rough around the edges, but that makes it feel real. It makes the message believable. The content hasn't been through nine layers of editing, making sure that no one is offended, and that it is vanilla enough to be published online.
Muncie. Please employ a Blog for SEO strategy that puts real. humanized, imperfect, content at the intersection of an immediate need and my Google search. I will find you, and believe it or not I want the commentary to be imperfect.
Blog information influences me, and it speaks to the long tail keyword I just typed into Google. Free the people who know the city to talk about it in a place where I can find it.
Okay, I don't really think that I'm bad at blogging. I just wanted to capture your attention with an ironic title given my role at a certain blog company.
In all honesty, I'm okay at blogging. I'm not the best blogger in the world, or the worst. I'd like to be able to write content every day, but just like you...I'm really busy and sometimes I just need to unwind in front of my reality TV shows.
I don't feel one bit ashamed to admit this -- even to people who tell me that corporate blogging sounds like a good idea in theory, but that it's too hard to execute.
I'm comfortable with being honest about the quality and quantity of my blog posts because despite my mediocre personal performance, Compendium's blogging program is an enormous success.
And by "successful business blogging program," I mean that we get found on the first page of Google for thousands of keyword terms related to our business, send thousands of people to our blogs each month, and convert many of them into prospects and customers.
So how does that work?How can I be mediocre at blogging, and participate in a highly successful program?
Well, a few things:
1. We have several content contributors (all of our employees. As Chris likes to say, if someone is worth a business card, they're worth a blog).
2. All of our content contributors are free to write about what they select, but they're expected to include info that's relevant, helpful, and on topic.
3. How can we monitor this? We have an administrative portal where content can be reviewed, approved, or declined, with feedback sent to the writer (i.e. Sally, your post stunk, it was totally off-topic and didn't include a single keyword relevant to a blog software company like us).
So, the program is successful because it includes great blogging tools, a lot of contributors, and an easy process (i.e. someone writes content, the other approves).
I'm perfectly fine letting other Compendium folks like Chris Baggot, PJ Hinton, and Eric Romer take the individual blogging superstar awards.
I was born and raised a Hoosier it wasn't until I moved back after college that I truly got into following The Colts. Now I am a fan through and through (no fair weather fan here!); I love those guys and all of my friends know where to find me on Sunday afternoons in the fall - watching the Colts. The last few years in Indianapolis have been ones of change, excitement, anxiety and pride around our football team. Our Indianapolis Colts were Super Bowl champs, we've broken records, and most widely known, we've added a new stadium to the city - Lucas Oil.
Being a Colts fan, I feel it is my duty to share the recent news that Indianapolis has officially deflated the previous home of the Colts, the RCA Dome. This marks a sad period for a fan as that's the last place that the Colts won at home (although hopefully this statistic will be changing soon), where they were housed during all the "rebuilding" years, where they lived the year that they became World Champions. There were a lot of memories housed in that dome and I will miss the place.......*moment of silence*.
I can't stay down for too long, as the Colts will actually be on Monument Circle today (right outside the Compendium office building) in their support of the 2nd Annual Zup's BBQ for Kids. The Colts and BBQ, at the heart of Indianapolis, with beautiful weather....that's what I call a GREAT day!
If anyone is stopping by for the festivities, feel free to check out this Indianapolis Blogging Company!!
Compendium is a blogging company located in Indianapolis. So when we get the opportunity to work with other local companies it is a great swell of pride for us. One company I would like to highlight in particular is the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association. They are a great asset to both the city of Indianapolis and as one of our clients. They have had added a corporate blog to their website and are seeing tremendous results and they haven't even been posting for a month yet.
Below are some snippets of their stats:
Just under 2,000 visitors in their first month of posting
18 out of their 19 keywords are already ranking in Google
5 of those keywords are in the Top 10, the remaining ranking keywords are all in the top 50
Some of the reasons they are so successful coming out of the gates is that they are following best practices of posting 2 times per week, per blogger. They include links to other sites in all of their posts. As well as, they do a fantastic job of incorporating pictures to make each post visually appealing to their readers.
Over the past few years the concerns have been raised about how bloggers conduct themselves online. The most notable was Tim O'Reilly’s call for a bloggers code of conduct. Some of the more traditional bloggers gave a significant amount of push back to the situation while others embraced it. I think that it is important that all corporate blogging companies establish their own rules of conduct as it pertains to blogging.
Here are the main points that should be included in the code of conduct:
As an individual and as a company taking responsibility for content fond on the blog
Take a stance for/against use of images and videos you might not have the full rights to
An explanation for your commenting policies – to you respond via email/post/comment and do you even approve comments when appropriate
Policy for approving or declining posts – what content is acceptableHow success is measured and tracked on the blogs
An explanation for how the content from the analytics on the blog are used and what they are
Dennis O'Reilly is writing about upgrading browsers in his Workers' Edge blog over at CNET News.com. Quoting from the post we read (emphasis mine):
According to Net Applications, IE 6 accounted for more than 26 percent of the browser market in June 2008, while IE 7 was used by over 46 percent of all people on the Web. If your PC runs Windows 2000 or an earlier version of the OS, you can't upgrade to version 7 of IE. Unless your boss insists that you use the older version of the browser on XP or Vista, you've got no excuse for not upgrading to the safer IE 7.
As a blog company, browser market share is something we keep an eye on because it helps shape our testing policy. We have to make sure that both our blogging features work properly on supported browsers and that blog pages look right on them. We choose which browsers are supported based on market share.
I second O'Reilly's upgrading advice because not only will you get a more secure browser by leaving IE 6 behind, you will have a better web experience because IE 7 is much better at complying with web standards.
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.
Hosted by Richard Cunningham, VP Marketing of Right On Interactive and Chris Baggott Co-founder, CEO of Compendium Blogware. Thursday, December 3rd 2009. Sign up here »
Working for a blogging company I do spend some time reading and studying other business blogs. The one thing that I have noticed that I value when reading other business blogs is when relevant resources are provided for me to either download or sign up for. 
I just recently finished reading 
Being a Colts fan, I feel it is my duty to share the recent news that Indianapolis has officially deflated the previous home of the Colts, the RCA Dome. This marks a sad period for a fan as that's the last place that the Colts won at home (although hopefully this statistic will be changing soon), where they were housed during all the "rebuilding" years, where they lived the year that they became World Champions. There were a lot of memories housed in that dome and I will miss the place.......*moment of silence*.
