BBC teams up with the Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett for a pretty sweet rendition of an Ancient Chinese folk tale, "Journey to the West." If you weren't stoked about the upcoming games, and if you can get down on some tasty beats and stunning visuals, this might just get you in the mood.
To me this shows that creativity doesn't need to be confined to a 30 second tv spot. This particular video has only been up on YouTube for a little over one week and has 355,000 something views.
Like Chris Baggott commented on Greenfield Liquor's approach to blogging for business, video can be a powerful and fun approach to communicating your message.
Compelling content (like a monkey flying on a cloud and kicking ass all the way to Beijing) will get mad views. This voracious viewage will stir up some crazy conversions once the traffic floods into the target homesite from the place where the killer content is held (ie YouTube or your better yet, your very own Compended blog). These crazy conversions turn into radical return on investment. Shizzam.
BBC can track the real return on their ill investment just by tracking the number of views on YouTube and the traffic flooding in to their site thanks to their mind-blowing content.
CONTENT DRIVES TRAFFIC. Know this.
Get your games on!
Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by
Chantelle Flannery
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
Posted Friday, July 25, 2008 by
Sarah Sedberry
Douglas Karr touched on a topic near and dear to our hearts here at Compendium Blogware in his post yesterday: Blogging for Business: New Tricks for Old Dogs.
Douglas does a great job breaking down how blogs are emerging as a marketing source for companies.
He addresses the pitfalls businesses are falling into, such as:
"Gaining authority and search engine results"
- This is part of the package with Compendium - our expertise in SEO"
"Implementing a blogging platform that guides the blogger effortlessly through the posting process"
- Our platform allows the user to easily create and post content, provides a list of keywords to focus on, and an indicator letting the blogger know how strong their post is.
"Blogging is a not an overnight success. Great blogging results require momentum and constant analysis and improvement."
- Our Client Success Team is here to provide support and guidance regarding content ideas, best practices, tips and tricks to keep the process simple and stress-free.
Another feature of our platform is that there is an administrative layer that monitors the content that ends up published.
These are all reasons why Compendium Blogware can be the best answer for any business looking to begin a corporate blog.
(Also a thanks to Douglass for the plug!) :o)
Douglas does a great job breaking down how blogs are emerging as a marketing source for companies.
He addresses the pitfalls businesses are falling into, such as:
- Dull conversations aren’t attracting readers
- Business blogs turn into regurgitated press releases.
- The topics don’t spark comments or trackbacks.
- The posts lack personality and thought leadership.
"In short, the reason why business blogs are failing are because corporations are substituting a blogging application for their content management system."
At Compendium Blogware we help focus your posts and give you the tools to help make your corporate blog successful. We stress blogging for a purpose and assist in creating a strategy with your business to get a return on your investment.
Douglas also touches on what they can do to ensure success."Gaining authority and search engine results"
- This is part of the package with Compendium - our expertise in SEO"
"Implementing a blogging platform that guides the blogger effortlessly through the posting process"
- Our platform allows the user to easily create and post content, provides a list of keywords to focus on, and an indicator letting the blogger know how strong their post is.
"Blogging is a not an overnight success. Great blogging results require momentum and constant analysis and improvement."
- Our Client Success Team is here to provide support and guidance regarding content ideas, best practices, tips and tricks to keep the process simple and stress-free.
Another feature of our platform is that there is an administrative layer that monitors the content that ends up published.
These are all reasons why Compendium Blogware can be the best answer for any business looking to begin a corporate blog.
(Also a thanks to Douglass for the plug!) :o)
Posted Thursday, July 24, 2008 by
Eric Romer
Today at 5pm EST, co-founder and CEO of Compendium, Chris Baggott, will be answering questions about how to track, measure and adjust your company blog. Details below:
What: How to Track, Measure and Adjust Your Blog
Who: The Blog Squad: Patsi Krakoff, Psy.D., & Denise Wakeman, with guest Chris Baggott
Where: At your home or office: on the phone or on the web
When: Thursday, July 24 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Why: To learn how you can earn a good income from blogging.
Investment: Zero - It's free to attend. Register now to attend the live event.
Posted Thursday, July 24, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
I'll be a guest today at 5pm est of the Blog Squad to discuss how to Track and Measure your Corporate or Business Blog. Be sure to tune in :-)You have to register, and can do that on the Blog Squad Site....
Posted Friday, July 18, 2008 by
Megan Glover
We received some really fun PR news this week. The BlogSquad is going to do a live interview with Chris next Thursday. Here are the details:
Get the Results You Want: How to Track, Measure and Adjust Your Blog
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
5:00 pm EST
Register Here
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
5:00 pm EST
Register Here
At the end of the day, and particularly in today's economy, it's a marketer job to make the company money. Gone are the days when a marketer can play "eenie, meenie, miney, mo and have job security."
Blogging is 100% measurable. At Compendium, all of our blogs have built in analytics which track every visitor, bump in traffic and keyword traffic your blogs are attracting. It's important to us that our clients track these metrics, so important that we have success managers tied to every single client. Our Compendium Success Managers have monthly status calls that provide metrics and dashboards on blog progress and areas for improvement.
Hope you're able to join Chris and the Blog Squad next week to learn more about how you can track and measure your own blogging program.
Blogging is 100% measurable. At Compendium, all of our blogs have built in analytics which track every visitor, bump in traffic and keyword traffic your blogs are attracting. It's important to us that our clients track these metrics, so important that we have success managers tied to every single client. Our Compendium Success Managers have monthly status calls that provide metrics and dashboards on blog progress and areas for improvement.
Hope you're able to join Chris and the Blog Squad next week to learn more about how you can track and measure your own blogging program.
Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
Many of you may have noticed the announcement last week regarding ICANN dramitically increasing the suffixes available for domain names. Here is a blurb from the New York Times:
What are you going to do?
Incorporate blog management software company wide. The biggest benefit of enterprise or business blogging is Search engine optimization. The more people you have blogging, the more relevant content gets created, and the more likely you are to be found accross a lots of keywords.
Forget people remembering your domain...focus on getting found by using corporate blog tools.
According to new rules unanimously passed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, at its meeting here, any company, organization or country will soon be able to apply for a new Web address extension, called a top-level domain.
That could smooth the way for Web addresses that end in city names, brands and generic words. It could also sow confusion in the minds of Web users, create a host of new ways to exploit the Web addressing system and start a wave of legal skirmishes over applications to register trademarks — .coke, for example.
Uggh! What a mess this makes for normal businesses & organizations. People are already having a tough time keeping track of your web address. By adding basically an unlimited number of .anything branding by domain becomes just about impossible.
If anything is going to drive people even more into the arms of the search engines, it's going to be this.What are you going to do?
Incorporate blog management software company wide. The biggest benefit of enterprise or business blogging is Search engine optimization. The more people you have blogging, the more relevant content gets created, and the more likely you are to be found accross a lots of keywords.
Forget people remembering your domain...focus on getting found by using corporate blog tools.
Posted Wednesday, June 25, 2008 by
Ali Sales
It's 1:52. I have a meeting in 8 minutes. That's not a long time to get much of anything done, but I'm going to write a blog post during it. Why? To prove that generate content for your business blogging program doesn't have to take a ton of time.
Here are a few quick tips for writing good, quick content:
1. Use your arsenal of existing content. We tend to forget how much content all of us accumulate over just a few weeks. There is nothing wrong with re-purposing content for your corporate blogs. Some places to look:
2. Just do it. You can't waste too much time thinking "what should I write about." Look at your arsenal and start typing.
If you're using Compendium Blogware, you'll see the things you should write about on the righthand side of your user account, so that should help you get focused. More doing, less thinking is good for all of us sometimes.
3. Don't be afraid to reiterate and repeat. Assuming that you're blogging for SEO, you can expect that it will mostly be new visitors returning to your blog. They haven't seen your best stuff yet, as content is continually getting pushed down to the bottom of your blogs.
It's 1:59 and my post is finished. I didn't have to spend hours coming up with content (I got the idea for this post based on the conversations taking place at Compendium headquarters around time commitment and content). I logged in. I started writing. I used my keyword suggestion tool, brain, and eye on the clock to keep my content on track.
Here are a few quick tips for writing good, quick content:
1. Use your arsenal of existing content. We tend to forget how much content all of us accumulate over just a few weeks. There is nothing wrong with re-purposing content for your corporate blogs. Some places to look:
- Newsletters
- Whitepapers
- Old articles
- Your inbox
- Industry News
2. Just do it. You can't waste too much time thinking "what should I write about." Look at your arsenal and start typing.
If you're using Compendium Blogware, you'll see the things you should write about on the righthand side of your user account, so that should help you get focused. More doing, less thinking is good for all of us sometimes.
3. Don't be afraid to reiterate and repeat. Assuming that you're blogging for SEO, you can expect that it will mostly be new visitors returning to your blog. They haven't seen your best stuff yet, as content is continually getting pushed down to the bottom of your blogs.
It's 1:59 and my post is finished. I didn't have to spend hours coming up with content (I got the idea for this post based on the conversations taking place at Compendium headquarters around time commitment and content). I logged in. I started writing. I used my keyword suggestion tool, brain, and eye on the clock to keep my content on track.
Posted Thursday, June 19, 2008 by
Ali Sales
As a follow up to my last post, I'm going to put together a response for each of the questions I heard during the Blog Potomac conference last month.
I'll start with this question because it's the one I get most excited about:
How can I track the impact of corporate blogging?
Easy. Are you currently tracking the impact of your website? Are you tracking the impact of your Pay Per Click campaigns, email marketing, and any other online activities?
Good, I thought so. Then you can most definitely track the impact of blogging. There are a few key things:
1. You must have a goal when you start your blogging program. If you have no goal, then how will you measure against it?
2. You must have a call-to-action or conversion point accessible from your blogs. Take a look at the sidebar of my blog. Notice those conversion points? It's no secret that I want to build a relationship with you. So of course I need to provide ways for you to express more interest in my business.
3. From that conversion point, drive the visitor to a landing page that a) is specific to the blogging program or b) includes a tracking string so you can trace conversions back to that URL
4. Use your CRM system. To use Compendium as an example, we use a hidden field named "blogging program" as a source for prospects that come from our blogs. We also use Campaigns in salesforce.com so that we can track how a prospect from our blogging program progresses into a client opportunity for us. Campaigns in salesforce are great because they will automatically calculate your ROI!
I'll end my response with a pretty powerful snapshot of how blogs will change your business.
Compendium's blogging program generated $15K in new business over the last two months, is our second best online activity from an ROI standpoint (we assume that we would pay for our own software when we calculate ROI), and has a new client close rate of 35%.
The beauty of blogging is that it's online, trackable, and...it works.
I'll start with this question because it's the one I get most excited about:
How can I track the impact of corporate blogging?
Easy. Are you currently tracking the impact of your website? Are you tracking the impact of your Pay Per Click campaigns, email marketing, and any other online activities?
Good, I thought so. Then you can most definitely track the impact of blogging. There are a few key things:
1. You must have a goal when you start your blogging program. If you have no goal, then how will you measure against it?
2. You must have a call-to-action or conversion point accessible from your blogs. Take a look at the sidebar of my blog. Notice those conversion points? It's no secret that I want to build a relationship with you. So of course I need to provide ways for you to express more interest in my business.
3. From that conversion point, drive the visitor to a landing page that a) is specific to the blogging program or b) includes a tracking string so you can trace conversions back to that URL
4. Use your CRM system. To use Compendium as an example, we use a hidden field named "blogging program" as a source for prospects that come from our blogs. We also use Campaigns in salesforce.com so that we can track how a prospect from our blogging program progresses into a client opportunity for us. Campaigns in salesforce are great because they will automatically calculate your ROI!
I'll end my response with a pretty powerful snapshot of how blogs will change your business.
Compendium's blogging program generated $15K in new business over the last two months, is our second best online activity from an ROI standpoint (we assume that we would pay for our own software when we calculate ROI), and has a new client close rate of 35%.
The beauty of blogging is that it's online, trackable, and...it works.
Posted Sunday, June 15, 2008 by
Ali Sales
This past Friday, I traveled to Washington D.C. to take part in BlogPotomac, a casual conference (it took place at the State Theater, host to mostly concerts).I took a lot of notes and had every intention of posting while at the conference, but here I am a few days later after a very messy day of travel home.
Some of the key topics of discussion included:
1. How do I motivate people in my organization to not only dip their toe into corporate blogging, but consistently fuel the business blogging machine with updated content?
2. What are the right means of social networking for my business? i.e. There's so much buzz about Second Life, FaceBook, blogging, etc....how do I move forward without trying to do too much, and doing the right things?
3. How can I track the impact of organizational blogging?
4. Do I have to have a corporate blogging policy...how can I control content?
5. If we participate in the blogosphere, what kind of engagement should we expect to see (i.e. comments) based on what others have seen in the past?
Excellent fodder for several blog posts (perhaps you're wondering about some of the same things), and I have some good quotes from the variety of speakers who took the stage.
Because I'm excited about these questions, I'm hereby declaring my "How to Evaluate Online Traffic" series over (this is one of the best parts of business blogging -- you have flexibility in what you do or do not want to talk about) because I found out that MidMarketer has a great whitepaper on the topic. Why recreate the wheel?
A link to the MidMarketer Web Analytics: What to Look at whitepaper is here - they have several other great resources on their site.
I'll spend my next few blog posts addressing the topics above.
Posted Wednesday, June 4, 2008 by
PJ Hinton
Charles Cooper at CNet's news.com website has a thought provoking article about commenter rights. He mentions a blog post at Disqus' corporate weblog that proposes a bill of rights for comments. Support for comments in business blogging software is important because it fosters one of the most important blogging benefits -- customer engagement.
I took a look at the list of rights he mentions, and while the question is interesting, I think that the scope of the rights as proposed verges on overkill.
A comment posting feature helps to encourage reader participation. Where I think the commenter rights goes off the deep end is the implicit assumption the comment area is the sole venue by which the conversation must continue. I think it is just one channel, and to make commenting as feature rich as proposed would turn a blog into a bulletin board where only one user is allowed to initiate a thread.
Rather than a complicated system of post, edit, track, and remove operations, backed with policies that determine whether an after-the-fact edit is OK, why can't we just live with a simple social contract? A blogger shall allow comments from anyone. A commenter is free to write what he or she wants. Either party may delete the comment, but once the removal has been done, it's irreversible. That saves the commenter from regret for posts written in the heat of the moment, and at the same time it prevents the airbrushing that Cooper worries about in his post.
In other words, the relationship between blogger and commenter is that of a host and a guest in a house. The host invites guests, and has the right to dismiss them for bad behavior.
The question of comment ownership from a copyright standpoint is a bit tougher. Of all the comments that I have left on blogs, I've never felt a sense of ownership in the sense that I thought a blogger would needto seek permission to republish my content. If a reader is that passionate about retaining the right to determine whether the blogger can republish, he or she should probably write the comment as a full post on his or her own blog and then post a link in the comment section.
The level of discussion that the bill of rights has raised should give pause to companies rolling out a corporate weblog. Let your readers speak freely and don't be too quick to decline comments. Your customers may not always be right, but they are definitely worth listening to.
I took a look at the list of rights he mentions, and while the question is interesting, I think that the scope of the rights as proposed verges on overkill.
A comment posting feature helps to encourage reader participation. Where I think the commenter rights goes off the deep end is the implicit assumption the comment area is the sole venue by which the conversation must continue. I think it is just one channel, and to make commenting as feature rich as proposed would turn a blog into a bulletin board where only one user is allowed to initiate a thread.
Rather than a complicated system of post, edit, track, and remove operations, backed with policies that determine whether an after-the-fact edit is OK, why can't we just live with a simple social contract? A blogger shall allow comments from anyone. A commenter is free to write what he or she wants. Either party may delete the comment, but once the removal has been done, it's irreversible. That saves the commenter from regret for posts written in the heat of the moment, and at the same time it prevents the airbrushing that Cooper worries about in his post.
In other words, the relationship between blogger and commenter is that of a host and a guest in a house. The host invites guests, and has the right to dismiss them for bad behavior.
The question of comment ownership from a copyright standpoint is a bit tougher. Of all the comments that I have left on blogs, I've never felt a sense of ownership in the sense that I thought a blogger would needto seek permission to republish my content. If a reader is that passionate about retaining the right to determine whether the blogger can republish, he or she should probably write the comment as a full post on his or her own blog and then post a link in the comment section.
The level of discussion that the bill of rights has raised should give pause to companies rolling out a corporate weblog. Let your readers speak freely and don't be too quick to decline comments. Your customers may not always be right, but they are definitely worth listening to.
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008 by
Kristen Hanschu
Writing a post for a blog can pose as a challenge at times. Whether you are tired, over worked, busy, or just daydreaming, we all have reasons to not blog. You might even think "who cares, nobody reads my blog." This is not true. Someone does care, and many people do read your blogs. In fact, you might have individuals waiting on the edge of their seat to read your latest posting.
What I have learned in the past few months is that blogging is contagious. The more I do it, the more I want to do. How do I get my inspiration, you might ask.
First of all, I pick topics that I care to write about. If I am not interested in what I am writing about then I will not blog. I read other individuals blogs and news articles to get ideas. They key is to find inspiration from anywhere that you can. The hardest thing about posting for me is remembering that I am not writing an essay. I am writing for the general public and the general public does not like to read essay type articles. Finally, write with a purpose. If you write with one subject in mind it will keep you on track and engage your readers.
What I have learned in the past few months is that blogging is contagious. The more I do it, the more I want to do. How do I get my inspiration, you might ask.
First of all, I pick topics that I care to write about. If I am not interested in what I am writing about then I will not blog. I read other individuals blogs and news articles to get ideas. They key is to find inspiration from anywhere that you can. The hardest thing about posting for me is remembering that I am not writing an essay. I am writing for the general public and the general public does not like to read essay type articles. Finally, write with a purpose. If you write with one subject in mind it will keep you on track and engage your readers.
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
There are a lot of parallels to compare Corporate Blogging today to where Email Marketing was 5 or 6 years ago. Back then, Email Marketing was free. All you had to do was download a ListServ application, configure a server or two, find and manipulate some plug-in applications for registration or bounces or unsubscribes or de-duplication or throttling or opens & clickthrough tracking or analytics.....and the list goes on.
In the end, some geeks might have loved all this tinkering, but from a business or marketing standpoint it was a nightmare. The solution was all encompassing SaaS tools from companies like ExactTarget, Constant Contact or Responsys...
Superior tools designed for marketers, not IT folks. In the end, both parties were happier.
The same discussion happens in Corporate Blogging Software. "WordPress is free...why pay you?" For the most part we hear this when IT folks are involved. Natuarally as they understand the Compendium Blogware offering they start to see the feature differences, but the don't really understand that Free isn't Free.
That is why I was so happy to see this post today from a big Technology focused Blog talking about how overly hard WordPress is:
When you think about what your goals are with advanced business blogging the focus should be on engagement and traffic through SEO....not constantly tweaking software, messing with plug-ins or installing more powerful servers. Let the Vendor manage that stuff....
In the end, some geeks might have loved all this tinkering, but from a business or marketing standpoint it was a nightmare. The solution was all encompassing SaaS tools from companies like ExactTarget, Constant Contact or Responsys...
Superior tools designed for marketers, not IT folks. In the end, both parties were happier.
The same discussion happens in Corporate Blogging Software. "WordPress is free...why pay you?" For the most part we hear this when IT folks are involved. Natuarally as they understand the Compendium Blogware offering they start to see the feature differences, but the don't really understand that Free isn't Free.
That is why I was so happy to see this post today from a big Technology focused Blog talking about how overly hard WordPress is:
"Recently I have started chatting to an engineer at Automattic, the mob which employs most of the lead programmers on Wordpress. They also run the Wordpress.com service, which is a big job — millions of blogs, tens of millions of monthly visits."
"I complained to him that one of my annoyances in life is how complex Wordpress actually is. Why? Because you don’t just have to configure Wordpress to get anywhere. To get it to perform acceptably you can either throw powerful hardware at the problem (which is how Club Troppo has done it since our donation drive last year) or you can implement a whole rogue’s gallery of tweaks and adaptations."
When you think about what your goals are with advanced business blogging the focus should be on engagement and traffic through SEO....not constantly tweaking software, messing with plug-ins or installing more powerful servers. Let the Vendor manage that stuff....
Posted Friday, May 23, 2008 by
Lynsey Rosencrans
May is racing month in Indiana and to celebrate the 92nd year of the
500, today I will be attending Carb Day. For those of you who don't
know what this Hoosier Holiday is, here's a quick definition:
Carburation Day, or Carb Day,
is the last chance for the drivers to practice before the big race on
Sunday. Instead of having the entire day to practice, they have only a
few hours to get track time.
Sounds like fun, yes, I know. There's, of course, a lot more that goes into this day, like the food, music and of course the fan fare.
Ah yes, the fans. I mean what would racing be if it didn't have its fans. Actually what would anything be without fans? If you think about it, businesses have fans too. Cheesy, I know, but they do, and in the corporate world, they are called clients.
So the next time you are looking for something to blog about, why not include a success story from a client. They will no doubt appreciate it!
Sounds like fun, yes, I know. There's, of course, a lot more that goes into this day, like the food, music and of course the fan fare.
Ah yes, the fans. I mean what would racing be if it didn't have its fans. Actually what would anything be without fans? If you think about it, businesses have fans too. Cheesy, I know, but they do, and in the corporate world, they are called clients.
So the next time you are looking for something to blog about, why not include a success story from a client. They will no doubt appreciate it!
Posted Friday, April 18, 2008 by
Lynsey Rosencrans
So your blogging on a regular basis, but you're not sure how to measure your conversion. You see from Google Analytics that the traffic is there, but is it quality traffic? Conversion points are very important to business blogging. They help you generate leads or specific inquires.
A conversion point can be anything measured as a trackable positive result. For example, Compendium has a few great conversion points located in the sidebar. With conversion points, you are getting the potential client to do something. Putting them into touch with your company.
Here are my other suggestions for great conversion points:
Join email list
Sign-up for newsletter
Obtain a white paper
Request contact
Visit our web site
Sign up for a demo
Receive a free gift
Give these a try and let me know how they work for your business.
A conversion point can be anything measured as a trackable positive result. For example, Compendium has a few great conversion points located in the sidebar. With conversion points, you are getting the potential client to do something. Putting them into touch with your company.
Here are my other suggestions for great conversion points:
Join email list
Sign-up for newsletter
Obtain a white paper
Request contact
Visit our web site
Sign up for a demo
Receive a free gift
Give these a try and let me know how they work for your business.
Posted Wednesday, April 16, 2008 by
Jenni Edwards
I love conspiracy theories (I still have questions about the moon landing...check out the possibly fake picture beside this) and think that second guessing everything is generally a good way to get to the right answer. That is why I am always amazed by marketers who don't know the answers to common questions about their campaigns. Are they not at least questioning what they are doing or what has been done in the past?For an example from a conversation today, "Have you seen a substantial ROI from your television advertising?"; marketing director, "Well, we don't really know --- but I know that people are watching it and get to know our name." Really SIR? You know people are watching it? Are they...or are they running the kitchen during it? See that's the thing...the assumption that people are watching it and are taking away something from it is completely unfounded. That's where the importance of analytics comes into play...with internet marketing we can actually track visits, conversions and ROI down the dollar and every week are hearing more success stories of a great ROI from our client's blogging strategies!
Posted Wednesday, April 9, 2008 by
Ali Sales
So someone asked me the other day, "Why don't you ever update your website?"
Good question. As someone with a marketing background, yes, I understand the importance of testing, tracking, and adjusting.
At the same time, I know that our company should do more of what's working the best. From a few very important perspectives, our corporate blogging program outperforms the website.
The most significant of those ways starts with the interception point. How do people find the website and the blogs?
For the corporate website, most of our visitors come directly. For those who search in Google or other search engines and find us, they typically have previous knowledge of Compendium. i.e. "Compendium Blogware" is their search query.
At that, only 12 keyword phrases over the past 45 days have referred traffic to our website.
On the other hand, over 300 keywords phrases--more broad terms like "blogging solution"--have referred traffic to our blogs.
With a limited number of resources, that's why we at Compendium have spent most our efforts using the blogs as an online acquisition tool.
In the near future, you'll see us doing some new things to the website, but our blogs are our one of our biggest online priorities here. My guess is that if you are already running a business blogging program, your results are along the same lines.
Good question. As someone with a marketing background, yes, I understand the importance of testing, tracking, and adjusting.
At the same time, I know that our company should do more of what's working the best. From a few very important perspectives, our corporate blogging program outperforms the website.
The most significant of those ways starts with the interception point. How do people find the website and the blogs?
For the corporate website, most of our visitors come directly. For those who search in Google or other search engines and find us, they typically have previous knowledge of Compendium. i.e. "Compendium Blogware" is their search query.
At that, only 12 keyword phrases over the past 45 days have referred traffic to our website.
On the other hand, over 300 keywords phrases--more broad terms like "blogging solution"--have referred traffic to our blogs.
With a limited number of resources, that's why we at Compendium have spent most our efforts using the blogs as an online acquisition tool.
In the near future, you'll see us doing some new things to the website, but our blogs are our one of our biggest online priorities here. My guess is that if you are already running a business blogging program, your results are along the same lines.
Posted Friday, March 21, 2008 by
Ali Sales
I'm a little bit fired up over this. I am tired of seeing articles such as this one (in the Financial Express) that essentially say, "Blogging could be a good activity for organizations. The problem is: the ROI can't be tracked."
That is just not the case. First of all, anything that happens online can be tracked. That is the beauty of the online world, as compared with the print world. Online, I can track clicks, navigation, time...you name it, I can track it. And guess what? Tracking doesn't have a high price tag. There are free, robust tools like Google Analytics available to anyone.
Tracking online is not something new to us when it comes to our website, our even email program. But for some reason, organizational blogging seems to present challenges that just shouldn't exist.
Of course at Compendium, we are able to use our own blogging software, and run a corporate blogging strategy ourselves. Not only can I tell you the average time on our blogs, the bounce rate, the most popular content, and the number of visits, I can tell you how many visitors take the next step. That's right, we offer a call-to-action on our blogs just like we do on our website.
From there, anyone who "converts" via the call-to-actions we provide is logged in our CRM system and is tracked through the prospect lifecyle until it results in a closed opportunity. And thus, we are able to track dollars and ROI.
Tracking isn't difficult to do, but the first step is acknowledging that it can and should be a part of every online activity, blogging included.
That is just not the case. First of all, anything that happens online can be tracked. That is the beauty of the online world, as compared with the print world. Online, I can track clicks, navigation, time...you name it, I can track it. And guess what? Tracking doesn't have a high price tag. There are free, robust tools like Google Analytics available to anyone.
Tracking online is not something new to us when it comes to our website, our even email program. But for some reason, organizational blogging seems to present challenges that just shouldn't exist.
Of course at Compendium, we are able to use our own blogging software, and run a corporate blogging strategy ourselves. Not only can I tell you the average time on our blogs, the bounce rate, the most popular content, and the number of visits, I can tell you how many visitors take the next step. That's right, we offer a call-to-action on our blogs just like we do on our website.
From there, anyone who "converts" via the call-to-actions we provide is logged in our CRM system and is tracked through the prospect lifecyle until it results in a closed opportunity. And thus, we are able to track dollars and ROI.
Tracking isn't difficult to do, but the first step is acknowledging that it can and should be a part of every online activity, blogging included.
Posted Friday, March 21, 2008 by
Kristen Hanschu
The entire point of this blog is to prove that you can post a blog in less than 10 minutes a day. It is 10:04 a.m. right now and my goal is to be finished at 10:14 a.m. I have not done a single bit of research or even thought about what I will be getting into in this posting.
Since I have not done any brainstorm to think about what I will be discussing, this is a great time to throw a shameless plug in for our blog software. Compendium is doing something that no other company out there can even come close to. We (and our clients) blog for the purpose of winning keywords. They come to us wanting to win a specific niche or set of keywords and that is precisely what we do. We help them to determine the best set of keywords for their company. From then on their only job is to post blogs on those phrases. We do all the tracking to see what is working for them and where improvements can be made.
So it is exactly 10:12 now and I have managed to write a blog in 8 minutes. I have shown you that blogging can be quick and painless while serving a great purpose. If you are considering blogging to improve your business contact me or go to our website at www.compendiumblogware.com to get a free demo and learn more.
Since I have not done any brainstorm to think about what I will be discussing, this is a great time to throw a shameless plug in for our blog software. Compendium is doing something that no other company out there can even come close to. We (and our clients) blog for the purpose of winning keywords. They come to us wanting to win a specific niche or set of keywords and that is precisely what we do. We help them to determine the best set of keywords for their company. From then on their only job is to post blogs on those phrases. We do all the tracking to see what is working for them and where improvements can be made.
So it is exactly 10:12 now and I have managed to write a blog in 8 minutes. I have shown you that blogging can be quick and painless while serving a great purpose. If you are considering blogging to improve your business contact me or go to our website at www.compendiumblogware.com to get a free demo and learn more.
Posted Tuesday, March 11, 2008 by
Megan Glover
I went to a local AMA Luncheon today where Aaron Kopel, President and CEO of Vyante gave a great presentation about Online Perception and Trends.His presentation about monitoring and tracking online presence really hit home and made me wonder... do I really know what's being said about Compendium Blogware? And, how the heck do I find this information out.
Well, there are a number of companies such a Vyante that sell software that enables you to track online commentary and trends. But there are also some free tools, if such a purchase doesn't fit your immediate budget.
1.) Google Alerts. Visit http://www.google.com/alerts and sign up to receive notice when your company is mentioned in Google search.
2.) Perform ad hoc searches in Google, Yahoo and MSN. Spending a half an hour once a week searching for various forms of your company name is another great way to keep tabs.
As important about how you track your online presence is how you respond to the chatter on the web. That's where a blog can be your best friend and one of the best ways to respond to comments on the web. My only advice would be don't start a blog as a short term solution to online reputation management... a blog should be considered a long term strategy. So, find a blog software that fits your needs longterm and can be updated often and with ease.
Being proactive and having tools to track comments on the web and having the appropriate resources to respond to these comments are essential measures in an era where there is so much user generated content. If you haven't already, sign up for Google alerts and just take a gander at what's being said about your company. It might surprise you.
Well, there are a number of companies such a Vyante that sell software that enables you to track online commentary and trends. But there are also some free tools, if such a purchase doesn't fit your immediate budget.
1.) Google Alerts. Visit http://www.google.com/alerts and sign up to receive notice when your company is mentioned in Google search.
2.) Perform ad hoc searches in Google, Yahoo and MSN. Spending a half an hour once a week searching for various forms of your company name is another great way to keep tabs.
As important about how you track your online presence is how you respond to the chatter on the web. That's where a blog can be your best friend and one of the best ways to respond to comments on the web. My only advice would be don't start a blog as a short term solution to online reputation management... a blog should be considered a long term strategy. So, find a blog software that fits your needs longterm and can be updated often and with ease.
Being proactive and having tools to track comments on the web and having the appropriate resources to respond to these comments are essential measures in an era where there is so much user generated content. If you haven't already, sign up for Google alerts and just take a gander at what's being said about your company. It might surprise you.
| Next |
