Blog Information

Official Blogging Tournament Rules

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

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

Tournament Rules

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

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

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

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

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

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Lindsey Young

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

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

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

A Battle of the Greats

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

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

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

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

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

The New Age of Recruiting

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by meghan peters

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

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

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

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

My Facebook Addiction and Blogging

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

I admit, I have a slight Facebook addiction and through my self justification of this time waster --- I realized a few of the reasons I am so addicted to Facebook:

There is always something new to see, whether someone has added new pictures or updated their relationship status. I believe there is some certain interest in anything new --- most of these 'new things' I couldn't care less about in real life and would never seek out the information -- but its there right in front of my face and NEW so I look at it.
It's real --- real people, that are also at their computers updating their status, adding pictures and adding friends. These people are LIKE ME.
Pictures and videos -- I read all day...emails, the paper, notes...how nice is it to see engaging PICTURES and VIDEOS. The cheesy line of "a picture says a thousand words" isn't too far off when it comes to looking through someone's Facebook photos.

The thing is...these three things are the same reasons that blogs are so great to engage prospects! Now, being focused on business blogging, my end goal isn't to get someone to visit my corporate blog five times a day, but it is to engage the reader and the same tactics that make social networking so addictive can work, even for the non-social networkers that are out there searching for the solution to their problem on search engines -- having a well search engine optimized business blog that includes the newness factor along with real, human interaction (showing people that I am normal and like them) and having some great engaging videos and pictures can be a great tactic to engage your prospects in a deeper conversation to learn more about your business, just as Facebook can be a great place for individuals to learn more about one another (whether necessary information or not).

Tune in for the latest breaking tournament news…

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

Over the course of the tournament my blog will be the central hub of information and trash talking. Information about the contests rules and results will be posted on a daily basis. If you have questions please let me know by adding a comment to the blog. You did also hear me correctly … feel free to use my comments section to banter back and forth in the spirit of healthy competition.

We will be monitoring all blogs and comments to ensure that everyone is being a good sport. Any and all activities that are deemed unsportsmen like may result in a disqualification for the entire team from the competition. So play nice.

To stay up-to-date please subscribe to my blog via the RSS feed.

Google ramping up YouTube ads

Posted Thursday, August 7, 2008 by Eric Romer

I came across an blog post from Saul Hansell in the New York Times' Bits blog that highlights what most of us regular YouTube users have noticed lately: an increase in ad-supported videos.

The author points out that the ads are more reminiscent of "the gaudiness of MySpace than the sterility of Google," and describes how the Kings of Search are trying to get a return on their $1.65 billion investment when they purchased YouTube last year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of behavioral targeting when done properly, and not intrusively like Facebook's Beacon nightmare. For example, the image above has a text ad in the top right corner for Obama's book, which is probably relevant to a person watching a video about the man. But, like Saul said, it's a little harder to justify "enhancing user experience" with a Nissan ad that pops up on the bottom.

As online video grows (which it will), I'm sure this model will be tweaked and improved. However, right now, it's very much a "shouting" method of marketing. The first time an ad has no relevance to me, I stop paying attention. This only needs to happen once or twice (Myspace is a prime example), and then I tune out.

For businesses trying to reach their target audience, corporate blogging software allows you to create very relevant, personal content for those in the market to buy. The best "behavioral targeting" is to deliver highly relevant, recent information to those seeking it. As the digital shift continues, every organization will have a company blog in the next 3-5 years.

Boating... and business blogs

Posted Monday, August 4, 2008 by Eric Romer

I had a great weekend at a friend's lake house, which consisted mostly of relaxing, boating and eating. However, I managed to sneak in some talk about business blogging as well.

One of my biggest struggles with being on the cutting edge of a new blog software is how to break it down to layman's terms. In any form of communication, you have to speak the language of your audience. If I'm talking to a business that is well-versed in SEO and Paid Search Advertising, my discussion will be more granular and technical. However, some people don't want to know how the engine works, they just want the car to run.

Our host for the weekend, Harry, was intrigued by Compendium's solutions for business, but needed a quick explanation. OK... so what's the best way for me to describe what we do, cocktail in hand on the boat, so it's relevant to Harry? I got it... his hip replacement surgery next week.

Me: So, before your surgery, did you do any research?
Harry: Well, yeah, of course.
Me: Did you use a search engine?
Harry: Like Google? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did.
Me: Well, what we do is provide software to businesses, and in this case it would be a doctor/surgeon/health care provider, to tell relevant stories about hip surgery and recovery. So, when you, the potential patient, goes to do research, you find a human being giving you up-to-date, relevant information. It looks similar to a website, but with more of a conversational, personal communication.
Harry: Sounds like it makes sense...
Eric: (pulls out iphone) Here, let me show you...

Then I went on to do a Google search of a Compendium client. If you want to hear how this process works from one of our clients, Tampa Bay Convention & Visitor's Association, click HERE to sign up for the Webinar Thursday, Aug. 14th.

Full Disclosure on Blogs

Posted Sunday, August 3, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

In a recent ruling, the SEC will recognize corporate blogs as public disclosure. IR Web Reports states that, "...companies can rely on their websites and blogs to meet the public disclosure requirements under Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), according to new guidance unanimously approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission today."

This means that more companies will be utilizing public forums such as blogs to relay their most critical company facts and issues to the public. Long gone are press releases, welcome to the new age. From now on organizations will be communicating by using blogging platforms such as Compendium Blogware.

Not only does online distribution meet these disclosures, the art of search engine optimized press releases have the unique ability to appear in search engines tied to the key words your blogging about. This is where Compendium can offer businesses the ability to distribute news with added SEO functionality. When paired with a well-written, SEO optimized press releases, blogs can more than satisfy disclosure, they can inform your customers, investors, and clients on exactly where your company stands.

Additionally, people will be utilizing their social networking sites such as Facebook and LInked In to share these blogs with their social groups. Not only do these sites socialize content and link conversations across the web, they also help bloggers and other journalists write more effective and media rich content.

Using Corporte Blogs to Disclose Information to Investors

Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by Megan Glover

The SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) announced this week that corporate websites and other forms of online media such as blogs will be a permissible vehicle to disclose information for investors.

Here's a good article that gets to the heart of the ruling.

So why is this so important for enterprise blogging solutions, like Compendium? Couple reasons:

1. Need - the need for corporations to have blog software is only going to increase.

2. Legitimacy - occasionally we'll get the question, "is blogging a fad?" We know the answer is "no" but now we have the federal government promoting blogging for business as a "recognized channel for distribution."

And, for businesses - gosh what better time to embrace a blogging strategy, and save up a little cash that would otherwise go to releases! So now among other things business can blog to:

disclose information
get found in organic search
humanize their marketing
and, blog to acquire new business.

There couldn't be a more profitable and deserving time for businesses to start blogging.

Compendium clients are seeing success!

Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by Lindsey Young

We've started something pretty cool here at Compendium. Our Client Success team has started sending out emails to the rest of us sharing statistics, and major successes of our clients. I have found this pretty helpful when talking to potential clients, especially trying to drive home the point that early adopters will prevail using our software. The sooner you start, the sooner your organization is going to see increased search engine traffic, engaged readers, and eventually more business!

I'm always amazed at how potential clients that are coming to us know they need to be blogging, they just don't know why. That's always my favorite part of our conversation when I get to inform them, and see the light bulb go off! I'd like to share an exerpt from NetSquared.org:

"Did you know that over 57 million Americans read blogs? U.S. blog readers average 23 hours online each week! An average of 64% of Canadians visited blogs in 2007. And 10% of online consumers in the U.K. read blogs at least once a month.”

For the complete article go here. Like our CEO Chris Baggott always says, "we're changing the world!".

What's a Business Blog Supposed To Accomplish?

Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by Chris Baggott

There was some feedback from my interview on Blog Squad Radio last week about the Compendium Approach to Business Blogging was too Corporate.

I posted this reply:

I wanted to thank you both for a great session last week. Your questions were insightful and I really appreciate your open-mindedness for some of these new concepts.

A successful relationship requires direct communication. To get the right to build a relationship with a customer or prospect you have to first be found, second build credibility that a relationship with you will add value to the prospect or customer.

Blogging is spectacular for this stage of the relationship. From that point however 99% of the time that relationship is going to evolve to leverage some other medium...which might include face-to-face, email, telephone or even paper based things like catalogs.

You guys are a perfect case to show that a successful blogging program shouldn't be measured by the number of comments...but from the amount of traffic and conversions.Thanks again,

Chris Baggott, CEO
Compendium Blogware

Advanced Business Blogging Strategy, requires that your employee and constituent content should be mostly about your business. Blog about your solutions, your customers, your aspirations as it relates to your products & services. This is what people are searching for...great blog information that helps them and builds trust

Is Blogging Only for SEO Wrong?

Posted Friday, July 25, 2008 by Ali Sales

Blogging for SEO isn't wrong, but it can't be your only goal. Why? Because it's the tip of the iceberg. Of course you want your business to get found through search as many ways as possible, but your goal can't stop there.

You want a prospect to find your business blogs through search, and then what?

There is a next step. What is it? You want them to find one of your corporate blogs and then read sixteen posts before leaving the page? You want them to find one of your blogs and then subscribe to an RSS feed in order to come back over and over again and do nothing but read?

You see what I'm getting at here of course.

Your corporate blogging strategy can't focus on only the search engine optimization aspect. SEO is a means to the end, and your end is to make money by creating new relationships. That's it. If someone clicks to your blog from search and finds a webpage that's impersonal, unprofessional, and full of pointless information, then your blogging program is completely falling flat.

Today Compendium's very own Chris Baggott, will be hosting a webinar that goes into more detail on these topics. The webinar will also cover blogging tips, blogging best practices, and more. This is a great opportunity to ask any burning blogging questions. Get details and sign up for the webinar here.

Write Like a Blogger

Posted Thursday, July 24, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

One of the blogging problems that people constantly wrestle with is how long their content should be. In the world of blogging there are two types of people that you will typically run into. One is the "thought leader-must write an essay" type. The second is the "keep it simple so people will read this" type. Which type are you?

We tell our clients that best practices for a blog post is anywhere from 2-5 paragraphs. This keeps your readers engaged. They are able to find what they need in a blog post rather than digging through piles of information. If you find yourself writing posts that are 10, 11, and 12 paragraphs then it is time to shorten them up. You can also split them up into several posts or have them as a series of posts. Big League Tours is a client of mine that does a fantastic job with this.

Of course, you will still be seen as a thought leader even though you are not writing essays. The next time you go to post a blog, keep these blogging tips in mind. If you are spending an hour typing up a post, that is way too much time. Remember to keep it short and to the point. You will gain new readers and people will potential subscribe to your blog because they will care about what you have to say.

Blogging for Search: Text Book Example

Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008 by Megan Glover

At Compendium Blogware, we drink the kool-aid. We blog to get found in organic search and our compending software helps us maximize the keywords we're targeting in search.

So -it's always fun to share some real-life examples of blogging success! We had a prospect (now potential client) find us through our blogs yesterday. Here's how it happened:

1. Prospect was looking for blogging software.
2. Prospects googled "Blogging Solution"
3. The Compendium Blog "Blogging Solution" appeared as the #1 search result.
4. Prospect browsed the blog to affirm the information was on point.
5. Prospect clicked on the Live Chat Call-to-Action, which triggered me!
6. Prospect and I chatted she was interested in a demo.
7. Prospect was forwarded on to Business Development
8. Prospect is now a Sales Ready Opportunity - and might close within the month!

Does this pattern of events sound familiar?

Personally, when I'm searching for something, my search starts and ends in the organic section of a search engine. That's why, as a marketer, it's your job to get found in organic search and blogging is a tool that will help you do so.

And, with the right calls- to- action on your blogs you will convert blog visitors into potential customers. In our case, a simple Live Chat feature appealed to this particular prospect. View it here.

Do you have Blogging ROI stories to share? If so, Compendium wants to know about them. Please send blogging ROI results to: megan@compendiumblogware.com.

Increasing Referral Sites

Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

As a Client Success Manager here at Compendium, it is my responsibility to stay on top of my clients blogging efforts and to help guide them with best practices in blogging.

The first and foremost important thing about having a successful blog is posting frequent content. Best practices are to blog a minimum of 2 posts per week, per individual blogger.

We have several clients who are doing a phenomenal job of this; Visit Tampa Bay and Big League Tours are just two examples. Due to their frequency of posting their SEO rankings are following suit, as well as, sites referring traffic to them.

A key tactic that these corporate blogs are using is simply putting links in their posts, referring readers to other sites for articles, pictures, more information, etc... Search Engines LOVE the traffic that is generated by these embedded links.

Whats more is that if you start to link out to other sites, they will start to link back to you (as long as your content is relevant). Then as readers are perusing their sites, it will direct traffic to your blog. Therefore increasing your traffic, number of referring sites, number of new visitors, and ultimately the number of potential consumers!

For more information on how to begin building links into your blog posts, check out this article, from SEOBook.com, on 101 Link Building Tips. It provides insight on link baiting and multiple ideas on how an individual can add links to blog posts.

Blog Indiana Conference - Aug. 16 & 17

Posted Thursday, July 17, 2008 by Eric Romer

It's summer, which means wedding season. And a lot of my friends are getting married. In these past few weeks, I've accepted that I'm definitely the guy who sends a gift in the mail after the date of the wedding.

Come to think of it, I have also purchased more belated birthday cards than regular ones. But... in either scenario, the thought is still there, just delivered a few days late.

So, hopefully you will forgive me for being a day late on "Blog Post Day". As a clever way to promote the upcoming conference on blogging solutions and social media, Blog Indiana asked sponsors, participants and interested bloggers to post about the conference exactly 30 days out from Indiana's first blogging conference....

Well... here's your reminder 29 days out!

This will be an amazing event. Obviously, we at Compendium are advocates of corporate blogs and showing how blogs can change your business. But it's really encouraging to see the IU School of Informatics showcase this progressive community across all of Indiana.

Here's the basics on the conference, with links to the Blog Indiana website for more information. Make sure you don't miss our CEO, Chris Baggott, lead the session on Organizational Blogging.

Who Should Attend?
Students, hobbyists and professionals are encouraged to attend to network and learn. Experience with blogging or social media are not requirements to participate; anyone with an interest in technology and new media is welcome to attend.

Attendees
Seating is limited to 200 attendees.

Location
The IUPUI Campus Center on the IUPUI Campus in Indianapolis, IN

Cost
$49 for both days -- Register Today!

30 days away!

Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

Local bloggers from across Indiana will gather at the IUPUI Campus Center on August 16-17th, 2008, for Blog Indiana 2008, a 2-day blogging and social media conference that aims to promote education, innovation and collaboration among Indiana’s fast-growing blogging community.

Topics to be covered include Corporate Blogging 101, Writing for Blogs, Blog Etiquette, Legal Issues, Building Blog Readership, and many more.

For more information click here.

July 4th - Part 1

Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

For this year's July 4th celebration, I traveled to our country's birthplace (Philadelphia, PA) in order to take in some history, as well as, enjoy a wonderful 3 day weekend. During the trip the decision was made to make it the ultimate history/National Treasure re-enactment tour. Over my next few blog posts I would like to share the information I learned along the way.

Valley Forge Cannons

First stop was Valley Forge.

Now maybe it's my fault for not paying attention in history class growing up; however, upon my return I did a poll and realized I was not alone in my revelation.

Did you realize that there was never a battle fought at Valley Forge?

I was surprised to find this out when visiting this now National Park. It still holds great significance for our country though, as that is where George Washington's troops took refuge for the winter during the Revolutionary War. It was during this encampment that Washington's troops were almost depleted due to poor conditions there, involving inadequate clothing, disease and famine that led to high death tolls. With the relief of spring, that April a Frenchman, Baron von Steuben, came and applied a vigorous, systematic training program, that transformed the ragged troops into a confident 18th century military organization. Ultimately forming what is now today, the United States Army. The ideals, training and fighting styles were all established during the encampment at Valley Forge. Thus making it the historical landmark that it is today.

After our visit to Valley Forge, my friend and I discussed how wild it is that neither of us knew the history behind this landmark. To realize that there was never a battle fought, nor enemy attack blew our original thinking of what Valley Forge stood for. It opened our eyes to the truth as well as gave us a greater appreciation for what our forefathers went through when establishing our country to make it what it has become today.

There can be parallels made to blogging for your company and the ultimate strength that it will give your business. There are common misconceptions and confusion about blogging for business, but that is what we at Compendium are here for. To help clear up that confusion and work with you in order to make your blog successful. Much like Steuben helped America become an organized and elite fighting unit, as a Client Success Manager, I am here to help you... much like the Army motto.... "be all that you can be" (My apologies for the cheesy tag line).

The love/hate relationship...

Posted Thursday, July 3, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

I am an athlete; I always have been, and always will be. I was a 3-sport athlete growing up, as well as, played a varsity sport in college. Upon graduation I picked up multiple recreational sports, along with a relatively unknown sport called adventure racing, in order to keep my competitive spirit quenched.

Someone with my background in sports should be somebody that thrives on working out and staying in shape, which I do. However, it is a love/hate relationship. All of us have experienced, at one time or another, the love hate relationship. The following quote explains my tug-of-war battle better than I ever could:

“People don't always play sports because it's fun. Ask any athlete, most of them hate it, but they couldn't imagine their life without it. It's part of them, the love/hate relationship. It's what they live for. They live for the practices, parties, cheers, long bus rides, invitational’s, countless pairs of different types of shoes, water, Gatorade, and the coaches you hate but appreciate. They live for the way it feels when they beat the other team, and knowing those two extra sprints they ran in practice were worth it. They live for the way they become a family with their team, they live for the countless songs they sing in their head while training all those hours. They live for the competition, they live for the friends, the memories, the pain; it’s who they are.”

- Source Unknown

This same love/hate relationship can be applied to blogging and business. Our clients LOVE the blogging benefits they receive, such as the traffic driven to their pages, the increased results of their call-to-action buttons, and the success of higher page ranking - due to search engine optimization that results from; their users blogging. However, they may HATE the thought having to find the time create and write a post for their company blog.

My suggestion is to pull from your own personal experiences, and use that information to express yourself and your business in your blog post. Besides its YOU that your readers are looking to hear from, so go ahead and give them that personal, human voice!

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