Blog Content Management Systems

The Backbone to a Corporate Blogging Strategy

Saturday, October 31, 2009 by Kaila Woodside

If there is one thing that makes a powerful blogging software even more powerful its a great

blogging administrator. The main job of a blogging administrator is to approve and decline the blog content submitted by the company bloggers. But a great blogging administrator does much more. A great blogging administrator typically does the following as well:

1.) motivates the team of bloggers daily with new ideas
2.) develops incentive programs for the bloggers
3.) understands exactly how to track the success of the blog program back to a clear ROI
4.) is also a blogger and contributes daily to the blog
5.) is personally excited and motivated by the blog program
6.) understands blogging best practices and enforces those with the bloggers.

A great blogging administrator can be the difference between a good and a great blog for search engine optimization.

Blog Content Reality Check

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Sarah Sedberry

When a client first comes on board here at Compendium we have some that are familiar with blogging and those that are just entering the blogosphere for the first time. In order to help warm up these new waters, we have begun offering user and administrator training 2x per week.

In addition to learning the basics of our simple blog platform, there is a learning curve to the actual content to be written. Many have the misconception that blog posts should be similar to white papers - not the case at all. Most visitors that come to a blog are scanning the content, not reading it. Think to your own experiences - what do you do when you land on a webpage thats full of text?

In reality most blog posts should be:

Pithy and to the point - similar to writing an email to a friend
Keyword Rich - your content should be focused around the keyword phrases your company is targeting.
Engaging - make it easy for readers to skim your content to get the point. effective use of white-space can go a long way.
Directive - tell the readers what to do next (take that next step and convert into a lead).
Remember that most online readers will make a decision in less than 10 seconds after landing on your page as to whether they want to stay or not - make sure you capture them quickly!

In order to help those new to this blog craze, I'll be posting over the next few days the top mistakes new bloggers make. In hopes your business blogging program will be able to avoid them and get the most success from your efforts.

Stay Tuned!

Your company should run on generators

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Michael Burton

In order for your company to have a successful search marketing campaign, blog content is key. Generating enough content for a successful blog can be tough, but it is essential. All employees of your company should be able to come to

gether to create content.
In other words, your blogging strategy is dependent on generators.

I remember being younger and thinking that generators were such cool inventions. It’s like creating power out of nothing! With some fuel, some powerful gears and other little mechanisms, electricity is created anywhere you want! Besides adding a little fuel ever so often, it doesn’t constantly cost you, just provides you with the power you need.
It’s the same with blogging.

I know it sounds like a stretch, but hear me out … It takes all of your bloggers (the fuel and gears of your generator) working together to generate the most power for your company. The more they produce (number of posts), the better the result. The more efficient they are (relevancy of the post), the more powerful the blog becomes.

If you’re looking for maintenance on your content generation, contact a Compendium representative today to see how to most successfully blog for business.

100 Miles of Blog Content

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by Kaila Woodside

The Central Indiana Bicycling Association has designed a 100 mile bicycle challenge for touring bicyclists around the country. This event will have over 5,500 registrants from over 40

states and several other countries. The Hilly Hundred, starts and finishes right outside of Bloomington, Indiana and is a great ride!

This year, Bicycle Garage of Indy, a Compendium Client and local bicycle shop is asking their clients to tell their Hilly Hundred story. By leveraging Compendium's easy to use blog software and the new Web-To-Post functionality, you can easily tell your story and even upload an image from race day. Oh! and BGIndy even has set up an incentive program for you to do so. They will be giving away a $100 Gift Certificate!

If you are looking for simple blogging software that will make it easy to leverage your clients stories then check out our webinar and get a grip on social media.

Getting a Grip on Social Media with Compendium Blogware

Web-to-Post Success Story: Roto Rooter

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by Kaila Woodside

A long standing client of Compendium, Roto-Rooter is always looking for new ways to leverage content from their employee base. The latest software as a service tool they are benefiting from is Compendium's Web-to-Post functionality. Using Web-to-Post, their employee network simply navigates to a simple web-page where they are able to create a post without logging into the Compendium interface. They can title their post, tell a great story about a customer and even upload a picture. Once they are finished they simply submit their post up to the Administrator of Roto-Rooter's blog program. With the administrative layer in place, each post must still be approved before it will go live to blog.

By creating this web page, the Roto-Rooter corporate blogging team utilizes the white space on the page to help the bloggers with best practices, tips, and advice. They even use the space to talk about incentive programs and prizes associated with the blog to help motivate the bloggers.

After implementing Web-to-Post last month the blogging team has seen more than 80% of their content come from the web-submission page. The content is relevant, keyword

rich blog content that tells stories from Roto-Rooter branches all over the country!

Want to find out how you can leverage Web-to-Post for your business and win a Nano? Check out our giveaway a day promotion and learn more.

Webinar: Understanding & Improving Your CTAs

Monday, October 19, 2009 by Compendium Client Marketing

Make the most of your sidebar real estate by incorporating quality Calls To Action.

Remember that something your visitors were searching for brought them to your blog content. It is your goal to engage the readers and get them to take the next step with you. Writing keyword rich content and providing quality Calls To Action will help you reach this goal.

AirFlow Technology saw a 987.5% increase in conversions by following Compendium's CTA best practices.

Learn how you too can maximize your traffic's engagement using quality Calls To Action by attending this month's client only webinar.

Understanding & Improving Your Calls To Action
Date: Thursday, October 29th
Time: 2pm EST

Do you have Calls To Action that are performing well? Go here to tell us about your CTAs and we'll highlight your organization's success during next week's webinar!

Having Fun With Creating Blog Content

Friday, October 16, 2009 by Sarah Sedberry

ITS A BLOG OFF!

I have had the pleasure of working with two very enthusiastic and engaged clients, Indianapolis Visitors and Convention Association and Tampa Bay's Visitor Association. They have both had successful blog programs over the years, and have been connected through Compendium. They now have a bond between them, sharing ideas about both blog content, as well as, other business programs.

In order to spice things up and keep their bloggers motivated, as their Client Success Manager I have set up a blog off competition between the two companies. Jeremy Fairly will be leading his team at Tampa Bay, while Breena Fain and Jeff Robinson will be the driving force behind ICVA.

Here are the details of their competition:

Start Date - October 15th 12:00 am
End Date - November 15th 11:59 pm

Winner - blog program with most posts wins (post scheduling feature is allowed)

What's at stake??

The losing blog team will have to where t-shirts saying "I'd rather be in "winning city"". Jeremy vowed that he would never where a shirt that said he'd rather be in Indianapolis, so we know he's going to be pushing his team hard to win.

To keep an eye on the action, check out their business blogs at: Visit Indy and Visit Tampa Bay

Paid search, organic search, and social media all work together

Thursday, October 15, 2009 by Brian Millis

I just read this great article from the eMarketer daily newsletter that I highly recommend. The best quote in my mind comes at the end:

"Consumers exposed to paid search along with influenced social media also had a 50% increase in click-through rate on paid search ads. Organic search click-through rates were higher, too.

“This finding provides strong evidence that investing in social media marketing can both increase initial brand consideration and drive higher conversion rates once the consumer has decided to purchase,” said Graham Mudd, vice president of comScore."

The key here is that a company should invest money on being found in multiple areas. Compendium offers the ability to get found more often in organic search, and the social media aspect of blogging leads to higher conversions. We also encourage a business to push approved blog content out to other social mediums like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

For successful corporate blogging, it all starts with getting found. These statistics from eMarketer provide further support that blogging for search is a fantastic addition to paid search and other social media efforts. If your business is not blogging and is looking for an affordable way to put out human content that actually drives organic ranking, Compendium is your tool.

Compendium Blogware . . . Clean, Fast, and Relevant

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 by Brian Millis

I just read this great article from Businessweek Online. It has an interview with Google's Matt Cutts. In one question about comparing the benefits of Google to Yahoo and Microsoft (related to the development of Bing), Matt makes a great point that touches on the value of the Compendium business blog software.

Cutts says:

"Those are three key things: freshness; comprehensiveness (you want to crawl as much of the Web as possible); and relevance (core ranking and Web spam). And you want the user experience to be really clean. If you go to senior citizens and ask, “What do you like about Google?” they’ll say “Clean, fast, and relevant.”

Let's work backwards on Matt's list because this is exactly why businesses should consider our blogging solution. We create the most relevant blog pages for our clients most important targeted search phrases. Relevant . . . . .Check!

Google and other search engines can crawl this content faster than other blogs because it's not buried in some huge blog with tons of category pages and tags or on some giant web site. We also make the entire user experience fast by automating the SEO of our clients' blog content. Fast . . . . . . Check!

A clean user experience is our top priority for us. When a user searches a topic or problem, we want our clients' blogs to be entirely focused around that query. Give them that relevant of a blog page and they will be happy and convert on a call to action. Making the search engine happy makes the searcher happy. Compendium Blogware makes both happy! Clean . . . . . . Check, Check!

College Blogging from an Admission Counselor perspective

Monday, October 5, 2009 by Brian Millis

I couldn't be happier about this article from the New York Times about M.I.T. embracing student blogging as a major marketing tool. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/education/02blogs.html?emc=eta1

Before joining the Compendium Blogware team, I spent a year as an Admission Officer at DePauw University (my alma mater!). While I traveled states like Ohio, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, and Indiana marketing the value of liberal arts and DePauw University, I realized something very valuable that this NYT article now validates.

Prospective college students don't want another glossy brochure with cliche tag lines about diversity, the low student to faculty ratio, and incredible facilities. In fact, most 16 and 17 year olds rarely even look at the snail mail that reaches their home. This is the Facebook generation, the MySpace kids, the Tweeting youth of America. They're certainly not at home waiting on the mail to bring the next post card. They are all online. They connect to millions of other prospective students just like themselves in a matter of seconds. They do hundreds of searches a week as they research their college decision. And that is why student blogging is such a vital tool that all colleges should be embracing. Those teenagers I met while recruiting for DePauw wanted to know about the campus atmosphere, and they wanted to hear it from the the most qualified source; the students.

So this does not surprise me at all that top universities like M.I.T. are taking student blogs to the next level. But does this mean that the fears and risks are not on the minds of the admission office, every dean across the country, and every board of trustees? Nope. They are all still worried that student blogging will put them at risk and tarnish the school image.

That is why our enterprise level blogging software is so important to consider. We have easy to use administrative features that allow a school to unleash their student blogging army while still maintaining control of the message. We can customize the blogs to match the university branding without losing that blog feel that makes it more human than a web site. But most importantly, Compendium's platform is the only solution that can maximize the SEO value of all this amazing student blog content. With us, colleges can guide their students with important topics, good ideas for better blog posts, and the highest level of security. For an example, just search this: Top 50 Liberal Arts Colleges and look for DePauw's blog at the top of the search ranking.

Hey Admission Office, would you like to use safe student blog content to win on your most important search phrases that support your mission statement and encourage the best and brightest to apply to your institution? If so, email me at bmillis@compendiumblogware.com or call my direct line (317) 777-6254 and I'd love to share more about my experience as an Admission Officer and how it relates to the world of blogging.

Stop thinking about it and just blog

Friday, October 2, 2009 by Stephanie West

Have you ever wondered what the difference between a productive person and unproductive person is?

Think about how much an unproductive person talks about and complains about the amount of work they have to do. I will admit - I do this too! But what good does it do?

Consider the amount of time you would save if you stopped talking about all the work you need to accomplish and just did it. I know I would save hours a week!

http://www.envirofieldschool.com/GWM%20Course%20Page.htm

So what would I do with those extra hours?

I'd BLOG, of course!

People have the misconception that blogging takes a strenuous amount of time and that they have to be extremely creative. Well, they are wrong. Blogging can be done in 10 minutes. That's it. It won't cut into your "to-do" list any further then that.

Compendium offers many tools that help you follow blogging best practices in order to finish your blog post in 10 minutes. All you need is simple blogging software and a competitive blogging platform (like Compendium's) in order to generate blog content and see results.

So I challenge you - stop THINKING about blogging and just BLOG! Compendium's blog experts will reassure you that blogging CAN (and SHOULD) be done in 10 minutes a day. Start to blog for business today!

What REALLY matters on your blog?

Friday, October 2, 2009 by Brian Millis

Can I add this news reel to my blog template?

This Twitter Feed is extremely important to my blog, so I'll need that.

Down at the bottom of my blog, I want to put this scrolling image of a hedgehog.

I've spent 3 years blogging and I'm ranking on this one key phrase. If I switch to Compendium will I lose that ranking?

These are all common questions that come up when I'm discussing a blog strategy with a prospect who currently uses a freeware platform. It's not surprising that there is attachment to a blog that someone has spent time keeping updated. But I always try and steer this conversation out of the weeds of what gadgets and gizmos can I put on my blog and keep the conversation focused on lead generation / customer acquisition.

The first part of lead generation is getting found. Compendium is a powerful blogging software that automates the SEO and organization of blog content to squeeze the most value out of every post. Next, what do you want a new visitor to do on your blog? Do you really want them leaving your blog to check out your Twitter updates? Do you think they'll scroll to the bottom of the page to see your hedgehog image? Is that one key phrase all your blog is good for? That is what I propose as a response to these common inquiries.

Instead, win lots of search phrases with your blogs. Then, convert those visitors on an engaging call to action. This will generate qualified leads and more closed business. This is the key difference between blogging on a generation 1 or 2 platform for "thought leadership" and "community" and blogging for search and customer acquisition.

If your blog wore clothes, what would it look like?

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 by Stephanie West

I was reading another blog post regarding blogging best practices. The blogger suggested to "dress it up," referring to your blog post.

So what if you took that phrase (almost) literally? If you dressed your blog post, what would it look like?

Doesn't your own style (at least) somewhat reflect you and your personality?? If so, don't you think your blog should reflect your company?

I challenge you to think of what dressing your blog post would look like... I think mine would look something like this:

It would have green eyes, because Compendium's signature color is green... and "green means go" when it comes to corporate blogging.
It would have a magnifying glass handy to examine blog content.
It would wear a hat/cap... and I'd call it a "thinking cap." Compendium's blogs are always generating new content with fresh ideas.
It would wear boots - because people wear boots when they are searching in the woods. A blog needs boots to search on the internet... boots help the blog get optimized in search engines.

So that's what my blog would look like if you wore clothes. What would YOURS look like??

Give your blog personality - and let each post reflect your company. My blog post is wearing clothes - what does that tell you about Compendium?!

Building a foundation to blog

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 by Stephanie West

Corporate blogging isn't something that your company should just blindly start doing. It requires thought and clearly defined goals in order to receive the maximum benefits of blogging for business.

Before you begin blogging, set goals. What do you want to achieve? The only way to successfully blog is if you know exactly which aspects of your company you want to focus on.

http://www.philosophicalquestions.org/GalleryRollingTwo.html

Once you have outlined your blogging goals, you can build your foundation. Building a foundation on clearly defined goals is like building your foundation of stone. It is substantial. Your search marketing strategy can be best executed when you know exactly what you are trying to get accomplished.

In contrast, blogging for business before outlining your company's blog goals is like building your blogging foundation on sand. Your blog content may never be maximized in search engine optimization. And your blog may be a little skewed. A skewed blog will lead to having sporadic content throughout the internet - and what good is that?

Compendium's corporate blogging software is designed for your blog to be optimized in organic search. With relevant keywords, you are building a solid foundation. To keep building on that foundation, you have to continue generating content containing those keywords.

Schedule a demo with a Compendium blog expert today. They will determine if your goals are compatible with Compendium's corporate blog strategy!

Puzzled with your corporate budget?

Thursday, September 24, 2009 by Stephanie West

http://www.piperreport.com/archives/categories/55.html

Let's focus on putting the pieces together to make your budget work during this recession.

That's something that we are all conscious of these days - especially with our businesses. I even talk about my budget (which pretty much includes not spending money).

Many company budgets are being cut because of the recession. Your marketing budget is no exception. If you aren't familiar with blogging - you should be! It could be the answer to your "budget crunch"...

Corporate blogging is your solution to seeing profit during a recession.

Compendium offers affordable blogging software that will maximize your search marketing efforts. After purchasing the blog software, you will just have to generate blog content in order for you blog to be maximized in search.

It will surely fit your budget during this recession.

For more information on the advantages of corporate blogging, check out Compendium's free Whitepaper: Corporate Blogging During Recession. It outlines how to adapt to the economic change and how to maximize your company's profit - by blogging!

Blogs Drive Organic Search

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 by Stephanie West

What drives you to blog for business?

Most people blog to be found in search - especially organic search.

http://blogging.compendiumblog.com/blog/blogging-for-money

This picture depicts where most "clicks" occur in search. This is just one reason why you should consider corporate blogging. The corporate blogging software that Compendium offers is structured so that if your company to generate relevant blog content - which should lead to organic search results.

Internet searchers are your prospects - and they are searching for the information you are generating. So in addition to generating good blog content, your blog should have links to other pages of information for your prospects to utilize. This element leads to lead generation.

Lead generation is your way (as a company) to connect to these prospective clients.

So let me recap:

Prospective leads search.
Most of them click on organic search results in their search.
These leads then read your blog.
They want more information on what you wrote about (your content)
So they click on a link to another page.
And their interest in your company drives them to contact you with more information.
Or the information they fill out allows your company to contact that prospective lead.

All of this leads me to one point: People read blogs. Blogs humanize your company and are great resources for curious customers. So consider Compendium's corporate blogging software in order to connect to these perspective customers. Click here for our free Whitepaper: Consider Blogging for more information on the benefits of blogging!

The comfort of blogging...

Monday, September 21, 2009 by Stephanie West

Good blog content is a popular topic amongst bloggers and perspective bloggers.

Why? Because people aren't sure if their blog ideas are "good enough" to write about. But I assure you - They are.

At Compendium, we believe that good blog content can be generated in 10 minutes. I'll admit - when I first began to blog at Compendium, it took me closer to 30 minutes to finish a blog post. But as time goes on, I feel much more comfortable blogging.

But why don't many people feel comfortable blogging?

Here's the myth: It's hard to create and sustain blog content.

But that's a myth. Blogging only takes a lot of time if you aren't comfortable with what you are writing about - or if you aren't knowledgeable about the content and information of the company you're blogging for.

Being comfortable blogging also depends on your software. Having easy to use blog software makes corporate blogging more enjoyable.

http://newstex.com/publishers/blogs-on-demand/

So here's how to become a comfortable blogger:

Have knowledge of your company.
Find easy to use blog software - such as the the software that Compendium offers.

These two simple points will not only make you a more comfortable blogger; they will make you a more efficient blogger as well!

For more information on additional blogging myths and ways to become a more knowledgeable blogger, click here to see and hear a free webinar from Compendium.

Advice On Adding Pictures To Your Blog

Thursday, September 17, 2009 by Jenni Edwards

I was recently attempting to clean out my Inbox and came across an internal note that discusses using properly sources or purchases photos for your corporate blog content. Now, I know I am not the only one guilty of grabbing pictures from a website or Google Images (oftentimes copyrighted); however, I bet you did not realize that even if you offer to take down an image you can still be charged for the use of it in the past...and it can be PRICEY!

My advice? Use something like iStockPhoto; the images are of great quality and you'll never have to worry about being charged at a later date for the usage. Another option is to use the advanced search options within Flickr and find Creative Commons photos that are allowed for commercialized use (just to be safe).

I'm not sure if I plan to go retroactively and change my photos out quite yet, however, on an ongoing basis - for your own business blog I'd recommend going one of these more legitimate routes!

Communicating through Corporate Blogs

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 by Stephanie West

http://www.lcsc.edu/library/ILI/Classes/bus_comm.htm

How do you communicate?

Does your company know how to reach its target audience?

I would safely say that Compendium has figured this out - and created an effective tool for you to use as well.

One crucial way that we communicate to our potential clients is through blogging. Corporate blogging to be exact.

Corporate blogging is a way for employees to generate good, relevant content to potential clients. "Potential clients" are the internet searchers. Corporate blogging is a great form of online marketing because it reaches customers that are looking for the information you are writing about.

The goal of business blogging is simple: Get found in search.

If you set up a corporate blog with Compendium, this can be achieved by generating good, relevant blog content. That's it.

For more information on how to communicate with your potential clients through corporate blogging, click here to receive our free Whitepaper: Consider Blogging. This Whitepaper helps you decide if blogging is the best marketing tool for your company.

Search marketing shift to mobile?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 by Stephanie West

What is the difference between your computer and your cellphone these days? The gap is lessening and a recent article published in BizReport titled, Internet Marketing 101: Why mobile search is different than typical search, supports this. Click here to read the article.

Search ranks in at around 90% of internet tasks performed. People just want to search - so smartphones are highly popular. Smartphones are the main reason why the gap is lessening between phones and computers.

http://www.letsgomobile.org/en/4142/smartphone-sales-report/

The article also states that "64 million U.S. wireless subscribers surfed the mobile web in May 2009." What's more impressive is that mobile click-throughs are between 5% and 15%, whereas internet click-throughs average 2%.

This is a research statistic that marketers will likely be considering. In the near future, you may be seeing a search marketing shift toward mobile-users.

How interesting would it be to see marketers shift their efforts to mobile-based search marketing?

Compendium's blogging platform still focuses its attention to structuring blog content to be maximized in search engines optimization.