Chris Baggott's Guide to Blogging

Is Corporate Blogging For Real?

My name is Chris Baggott & I'm CEO of Compendium Blogware.
Marketing is about relationships. Relationships happen between people, not brands & not institutions. In this blog we will discuss facets of corporate blogging trends and best practices to help organizations understand and succeed with this medium by giving searchers what they are looking for and putting human beings back into marketing.

Staggering Social Media Insights

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Chris Baggott

So author of "Twitter Marketing for Dummies", Kyle Lacey was sitting in my office yesterday and picked up an eBook that was on my ottoman and said: "Wow, this is really smart"

He was referring to this work from another friend, Compendium advisor and social media marketer (I'm dropping terms like guru or wizard from my vocabulary) Jay Baer of Convince&Convert. Jay has compiled an eBook based on his Twitter interviews with 22 of the world's best in social media marketers.

Of course it's free, easy to read and offers some interesting insights.

The Best of Twitter 20

Only your corporate blogs let you control your own social media destiny

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Chris Baggott

Thanks a lot to Interactive Agency Fat Atom for sharing this great video. We talk often here about your Corporate Blogs being the hub of your social media strategy. There are lots of reasons for this, but one of the most compelling is control. With Blog software like Compendium, you own your blogging strategy and nobody can take it away from you. Who can say what happens with Facebook or Twitter in the future...but as a business you need to control your own social presence. This is not to say that you don't feed relevant blog content out to these social spokes, but you need to control the hub. Enjoy this great video :-)

Your Corporate Blogging is the Hub of a Social Media Strategy

Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Chris Baggott

I may be a little late to this particular report, but back in June Forrester published a report called How To Organize Your Company For Social Computing by Jeremiah K. Owyang. (not exactly sure why they chose the phrase "Social Computing"?) The report itself is restricted and only available to their own clients but they talk about how organizations are using corporate blogging and other social media within large organizations. The key takeaway:

Which way should companies organize? We believe the most sophisticated and effecient way is the Hub and Spoke, which provides centralized resources that can support business units. The business units still have the freedom and flexibility to dialog with the market --and should be in alignment with what other spokes are doing. Social doesn't impact one department --but impacts marketing, pr, product, services, support, and development --every customer touchpoint.

This supports the basic ideas behind Compendium's Enterprise Social Media Platform. I also like this graphic depiction from Problogger.net showing bascially the same Idea.

Corporate Business Blogging as the Hub of Social Media

Blogging is the hub of all of your social media activity and the point to launch all of your other social activity. For most organizations this should be managed and deployed centrally to preserve both the integrity of the company and also to make sure that content and stories are funneled to the right place......not everything is "Twitter-worthy".

Always keep in mind that the key benefit from social media for business isn't engaging with the people you already know...you have lots of ways to do that. The biggest benefit for social media in business is introducting you to new people through search and referrals.

SMX West Content Advice: Use descriptive words

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Chris Baggott

Content Marketing and writing for search SMX west

"Don't fake real content" Great advice from Jill Whalen, part of a great content writing session here at SMX West.   Jill along with Heather Lloyd-Martin and Disa Johnson offered some great search marketing content advice.

My favorite and most obvious (and therefore overlooked item) is to be very descriptive. Don't say "our product" or "our services"...instead say our "Powerful Blogging Software" or whatever is the real descriptor of your business.

So do you need to train copywriters?   Interesting question.   Personally I feel that if you have SEO Tools built into your blogging software then the best content writers in your organization are probably the people who deal with customers every day.

Heather is talking about negotiating content marketing needs with the "Tech-team".   Marketing tools should not need to be dependent on the tech team (other than perhaps vetting the tools)

Bryan Eisenberg's SES London “21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites”

Thursday, February 18, 2010 by Chris Baggott

So there is no video I can find showing the actual keynote that conversion guru Bryan Eisenberg gave in London, but there have been several good blog posts as well as this video interview so you can all see the new Bryan.

Why focus on conversion?   Historically, the idea behind effective Corporate Blogging was a focus on Conversation not Conversion.   Recent data clearly points out that most blog traffic is coming from first time visitors...and in that light marketers are recognizing that the biggest benefit to business blogging is as an amazing search marketing tool.

Recognizing that simple fact should totally transform your thoughts around conversion.   If you have an audience of first time visitors and they are coming from search, what do they want?   (hint: It's not to leave comments)

They want to solve their problem.    So here are a couple of Bryan's 21 suggestions that are most relevant to Corporate Blogging: (italics are my words, not Bryan's)

Use the voice of the customer – Social Commerce – people need to hear from people like them. This usually isn't the CEO, but more mainstream employees and of course your existing customers.

Make data driven decisions! Do web analytics correctly by making to-do lists regularly! Keyword research is a big part of data driven SEO. Talk about what searchers want to talk about...they are your audience.

They appeal to multiple personas or segments. What makes blogs so important is the unlimited palate to tell lots of stories. If you told a story about every customer you ever dealt with imagine how easy it would be for every persona to find relevant content....especially through search.

There are a bunch of others Bryan went through but these were my favorites.

Local Link Bait As A Corporate Blogging Strategy

Thursday, February 18, 2010 by Chris Baggott

So the word LinkBait seems a little.... I don't know.

But the reality is that linkbait campaigns are a great way to kick start your blogging for search efforts.   It's a fundimental part of Search Marketing 101.

The basic idea is to do things that encourage other bloggers to link to you. We all know that links denote authority, but as the search engines move more towards personalized search, geography becomes really important.   So if you want to win in various geographies with your blogs, it's a great idea to target local bloggers and encourage them to link to you.

Here are a couple of ideas:

Rankings.   A very simple campaign can be to simply invest in a couple of hours research and find the bloggers on your topics tied to a geography.   You build a list, set some criteria and rank them.   Who are the best automotive and mechanics blogs in Cleveland?   Imagine if you were selling mechanics tools or uniforms.    If you informed 10 bloggers that they were just named to the Top 10 Most Influential Bloggers in Cleveland I will bet they will blog about it and put a link into your blogs. Multiply that by every geography and you now have great SEO support in every geo you service...

Use Contests as linkbuilding and content generation

Contests.   Another great spin on linkbuilding is to have contests.   Think about your customers and perhaps simple essay contests.   "Why do you deserve a new TV?"   "Win your team new uniforms...tell us how you went above and beyond serving your customer".

These are really helpful for a lot of reasons. First of all you blog about the contest. Second, you use email to inform all of your existing customers about the contest and link them to a landing page with a submission form. Here at Compendium we call this web-to-post.   Every entry (upon moderators approval) becomes a blog post.   This content helps you a ton on SEO of course, but by encouraging the submitter to share their entry 'story' they encourage all of their friends and collegues to 'vote' by leaving comments.   The post with the most comments wins.

In the B2B world you want to encourage all of your submitters to of course link to your blog from their main site or their own blog if they have one...to help their constituents vote.

You also want to go back to your list of local topical blogs based on the geography and encourage them to report on the story.   "Clevelands own Joe's Auto Body Finalist in National Awards..."   Again, with links back to your Corporate Blog.

Linkbuilding is good, ethical and actually very fun.

I was recently named the #21 most influential marketer of 2009 by an eCommerce company :-)

Linkbait? Sure... Fun and flattering? Absolutely!

Who's friends matter most? Yours....or Theirs.....

Thursday, February 18, 2010 by Chris Baggott

My good friend and webinar collaborator Jay Baer made this terrific statement the other day on his blog talking about something slightly different.

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Friends?

I'm starting to see a big change in the way Corporations are looking at social media and evaluating the comparative value of friends and followers.

6 months ago the whole social media buzz was about how many friends or followers a given company had.   I once sat through a meeting with an organization with a multi-million dollar advertising and marketing budget listening to a 30 minute praise of their successful Facebook fanpage.....with less than 3,000 "friends".

I'm happy to report those days appear to be winding down rapidly...and I'm not saying that it's irrelevant for all businesses, only most.   (The Korean BBQ truck in Los Angeles still seems to be brilliant)

What is becoming obvious is that there is far more value in the friends and followers of your customers.   This changes social media strategy to one that takes a very hard look at how to leverage your customers networks.

The key is to give them something they are willing and excited to share.   The best thing I've seen are their own stories.   We have talked frequently of corporate blogging being the hub of your social media strategy.   We have also talked frequently of the need to maximize your search marketing with a steady and frequent stream of good relevant content.

Some of the best marketers I know engage in emails that are triggered to customers inviting them to 'tell their story'.    Carhartt's blogs are a great example of an organization not so different from yours who does a terrific job of getting customers to post real pictures and stories about how they use the the products and services of the organization. (is anyone going to doubt the sincerity of this guy with the cigarette?)

But another funny thing happens here.....when you post a story and picture written by your customer THEY SHARE IT. If you empower them with the right sharing tools, these customer posts get put on their Facebook, they get fed to their twitter and they get pushed through the original social sharing tool....email.

How do you get me to tell all my friends how much I love your brand? Give me something I value.....FAME.

I don't care what business you are in, there is a huge population out there that values respect and the gratification that comes with being appreciated.   That are happy to share with everyone they know..."hey look....Brand X put my story on their website!"

Congratulations to Debbie Weil

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Chris Baggott

I wanted to point out with pride that Lee Oden named my friend and collegue Debbie Weil one of the top 25 women that rock social media.

Debbie Weil @debbieweil – Debbie “wrote the book” on corporate blogging (The Corporate Blogging Book) when most online marketing and communications professionals were still trying to figure out what a blog was. She runs a successful corporate blogging and social media consulting practice, works as a strategic advisor for Compendium software and continues to share her insights via blog and public speaking.

Debbie is a strategic advisor to us here at Compendium and I'm thrilled for her to be recognized in this great company.

Terrible Customer Service from Time Warner

Sunday, February 7, 2010 by Chris Baggott

If you are going to be online and offer online services or help, it's really important that you fulfill the implied promise. Web users are loyal but are also passionate when confronted with experiences both good and bad.

Check out this chat session I had two days after I signed up for Time Warner cable and internet service online and never heard anything back. I went to their site and found this great Chat feature....cool. Some kind of mixup surely....they will make it right for me......

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

analyst Francisco has entered room

Chris>

thanks

Francisco>

Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable. We are currently testing our live chat function and appreciate your patience. At the end of our chat you will be given the option of taking a brief survey. My name is Francisco. Please give me a moment while I access your account.

Francisco>

Hello. Iunderstand that you want to receive our services. Is that correct?

Chris>

yes please?  I signed up last week on line and have not heard from anyonne

Chris>

it's kind of time sensitive to us

Francisco>

I apologize for this inconvenience.

Chris>

thanks

Chris>

can you help?

Francisco>

I will be more than happy to assist you in this matter.

Chris>

great

Chris>

when can you come?

Francisco>

Please give a moment while Is search your installation order in the system.

Chris>

thank you

Francisco>

Can you provide me with your address please?

Chris>

the service address is 124 Whiterock Ave,  Crested Butte CO 81224

Chris>

I have a confirmation number: 59468

Francisco>

Thank you for the information. Please a moment while I search this address.

Chris>

thanks

Francisco>

Mr. Baggott, I did not find you address in the system. I will transfer you to our sales department, this department handle the online requests.

Francisco>

Please give a moment while I transfer you.

Chris>

Francisco>

Please wait while the problem is escalated to another analyst

analyst Alex has entered room

Alex>

Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable Online Customer Service, my name is Alex. May I have your complete name please?

analyst Francisco has left room

Chris>

hello?

Chris>

My name is Chris Baggott

Alex>

Hello. Thank you for providing your name. How may I assist you with today?

Chris>

seriously?

Chris>

sorry

Chris>

don't want to be rude but I just spent 10 minutes giving data to another person

Chris>

that doesn't transfer to you?

Chris>

I'm trying to become a customer

Chris>

I have a confirmation number:  59468

Chris>

I signed up online and no one has ever contacted me

Alex>

I do apologies for your bad experience.

Chris>

can you help me?

Alex>

Sure, You would like to know about the information on installation, correct?

Chris>

yes please

Chris>

I have a bunch of stuff to coordinate this week and Have to have service before Friday

Chris>

but now one has contacted me?

Alex>

Thank you for the confirmation.

Alex>

I would like to inform you that you will need to contact the Time Warner Cable online customer service center for installation related infromation.

Alex>

Would you like me to provide the number?

Chris>

number for what?

Chris>

no I want them to contact me?

Chris>

who are you?

Alex>

You will need to contact the Time Warner Cable online customer service center for installation related infromation.

Chris>

are you not Time Warner?

Chris>

come on?

Alex>

I would like to inform you that this chat support center specializes in online offers. I will be more than happy to assist with questions about these offers.

Chris>

why did I just spend all this time online when you can't do anything but give me a phone number?

Alex>

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused.

Alex>

This chat support center specializes in online offers. I will be more than happy to assist with questions about these offers.

Alex>

The Time Warner Cable online customer service center number is 1-866-410-4446.

Chris>

I know this isn't your fault but you have to appreciate how this is terrible customer service right?

Chris>

I see why everyone told me to go with Direct TV

Alex(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:06:37 GMT-0500 (EST))>If you have just another moment, I would like to ask a question or two about your situation to see whether we can make your service even more enjoyable for your family. Will that be all right?
Alex(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:08:11 GMT-0500 (EST))>May I please confirm if you are still connected with this chat session?
Chris(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:14:22 GMT-0500 (EST))>i'm here
Chris(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:14:49 GMT-0500 (EST))>I'm blogging about this right now...so I'll be around for awhile
Chris(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:15:50 GMT-0500 (EST))>but you understand I'm sure that it is impossible for me to enjoy your service if I can't even buy your service.  You see the irony in that right?

I wish I was Jake Greenbaum!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 by Chris Baggott

So...what does this have to do with Blogging Best Practices? Well not a whole lot.

Let me take that back. A big part of using Compendium as a content management system is the idea of humanization. What makes blogging and other social media such great tools for business is the ability to act like human beings instead of faceless Brands or Institutions.

So here is the human Chris Baggott green with envy because young Jake Greenbaum gets to spend this winter in Chile paddling his a-- off and running amazing waterfalls!

So now you know something more about me :-) I am one jealous Corporate Blogger!

IR Update in Chile from stephen forster on Vimeo.

Why you need an Enterprise Social Media Platform

Monday, February 1, 2010 by Chris Baggott

Do you use Corporate Blogging Software? Twitter, Facebook? It's been well reported here and pretty much everywhere else that spending by business on Social Media efforts are exploding. Are you keeping up with the best tools for business? What's shocking is the rapid adoption of free or consumer oriented Social Media tools by business with very little diligence into the very real risks posed by incorporating these tools.

Most hopefully remember the well publicized security breach exposed by Robert Scoble in his blog last September where he reported:

Anyway, this time (hackers) they also put some malicious code on my archive pages. Google sent me an email saying they had removed my blog from its index. That got a whole team to look into how they broke in. Now thanks to TechCrunch and Mashable you know there was a vulnerability in Wordpress which let them break in.

Today ZDNet reported on a new release of the annual Sophos Securtity Threat Report 2010 which outlines the results of their survey sharing the current thoughts on Social Media Security.

Here is a great observation by Sam Diaz, senior editor at ZDNet:

"Here’s something that struck me as interesting: 72 percent of the firms surveyed said they’re concerned that employee behavior on these sites puts their infrastructures and sensitive data at risk. Yet, 49 percent of these firms allow their staff unfettered access to Facebook..."

There is no question that there are amazing opportunities for businesses leveraging social media. But, like all other business software, we have to use the right tools that maximize the rewards, while minimizing the risks. Businesses can't afford the free-for-all that all this openess has bred.

The best blogging software is SaaS based, incorporates workflows for control and compliance and integrates sharing to other social networks.

Use your email to solicit blog content from your customers

Thursday, January 21, 2010 by Chris Baggott

This is one of the most overlooked opportunities in the entire Corporate Blogging / Search Marketing / Social Media Space. (These worlds are rapidly colliding if you haven't noticed)

Good old fashioned email.....

To be successful in leveraging your corporate blogging solution for maximum benefit to both you and your audience, you need to blog with search engine optimization in mind.   For most businesses, your goal is attracting new customers as well as engaging with people who already know you.

Backcountry.com is a fantastic example of what is among the most important of blogging best practices......asking your customers for stories.

The early generation of social media was based on "hope".   "I hope people will leave a comment" "I hope people will become a fan on Facebook" "I hope people will follow me on Twitter"

Now great marketers like Backcountry.com are recognizing that if you want people to be engaged, you need to ask them. That means including triggered emails as a key part of your Social Media efforts.

This is so simple and easy.   I bought a Cross Country Ski Package from them. They triggered an email about a month later asking me to review the bindings.    This is actually the second email I received from them asking for a review and frankly I ignored the first one.   So what? Am I offended that they sent this?

Of course not, I'm flattered! They care what I think!

Now think about your blog readers?   What do they want?   They want to see if you are a credible source to solve their problem....in this case a X-country ski binding problem. You do a search, you land on a page that's got terrific content generated by users telling you exactly what they think.   Other than perhaps employee content, this is the best kind of content you can possibly have.

My point is that if you "hope" to get this kind of content you will probably be disappointed. If you spent $ .003 on a triggered email you will drive the kind of engagement that adds real value to your customers and your prospects....and that's the best kind of search marketing there is.

Let me also say that I have no relationship with BC.com other than as a happy customer.   Do I think they would gain huge benefit using Compendium? You bet I do!

Social Media Helping Haiti

Monday, January 18, 2010 by Chris Baggott

This is a little out of context, but we have a unique opportuntiy:

What’s this about.

We all know of the unprecedented tragedy in Haiti. Often in situations like this we feel helpless to know what to do or who to trust when making donations. Will it go where it’s needed most? Who can we trust?

My longtime colleague from ExactTarget, Karen Jung, recently returned from a 15 month sabbatical from ET. During her time away, she lived and worked among the Haitians, gaining firsthand knowledge of the difficulties of simple, everyday life. She also developed deep relationships with people who live and work in Haiti full time and it’s these relationships we want to leverage to aid those in need.

Karen is an amazing person who has an unbelievably compassionate heart coupled with a brilliant business mind. There is no one I would trust more to know exactly how to deploy charitable aid to help those who have been orphaned or suffered personal loss as a result of the recent earthquake.

In that light, Karen and I got together the day after this disaster and established Haiti-Aid.org. With the support of ExactTarget, Karen is able to focus energy on working with the contacts she has on the ground in Haiti to assess the situation and keep this community appraised of the unfiltered realities of the situation. With her guidance, we have assembled a list of charities that need your help today! You will not hear about these groups in the news or see any fundraising programs on television; but believe me when I say these are legitimate groups doing good in Haiti long before the earthquake as well as long after.

Karen Jung is unique in being part of our email & social media family but also having had extensive, personal experience and knowledge in Haiti. I ask each and every one of you to please hit the Donate Now button and give whatever you are comfortable with to the charity that most appeals to you. This is a situation where dimes and quarters matter.

We also ask for the support of the entire social media community to pass this site on and leverage what we all do best….quickly building a network of concerned marketers supporting this incredible cause.

www.haiti-aid.org
Follow on Twitter: @Haiti_Aid

Sincerely,

Chris Baggott

Hiring Software Engineer/Product Development

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by Chris Baggott

Software Engineering / Product Development
This individual will be working with a small, cohesive team to develop a web-based software-as-a service
application that is hosted in a cloud computing environment.

The development cycle is fast paced, with SCRUM project management and weekly releases.

Team members wear many hats, with responsibilities including:

• research
• algorithm design
• API documentation
• coding
• debugging
• software testing

Most of this position's time will be devoted to development of server-side functionality, but there will also be times where this individual will need to write code for the client side as well. Server side functionality is exposed via a RESTful web services API. It is developed using an MVC framework on a LAMP (P = PHP 5) stack. Client side is HTML and JavaScript.

Required Knowledge

• object oriented programming concepts

• computer science fundamentals in algorithms and data structures

• thorough knowledge of technology underlying the web

Desired Skills:

• can come up to speed quickly on subjects with minimal hand-holding

• finds challenging problems to be exciting rather than intimidating

• asks the right questions to clarify ambiguity

• makes realistic time estimates for work items

• takes commitments to getting things done on time
seriously

• intellectually curious and committed to continuously expanding and refining one's
skill set

• unfazed by working from the command line

• communicates effectively both with technical and non-technical staff

Specific Experience Pluses:

• developing in a strongly typed language like (e.g. C++, Java, etc.)

• developing in an object oriented dynamic language (e.g. PHP 5, Python, or Ruby)

• working with unit testing tools (e.g. PHPUnit, JUnit, YUITest etc.)

• using an MVC framework to develop web applications (e.g. Agavi, Struts, etc.)

• comfortable with XML processing technologies (e.g. DOM manipulation and XSLT)

• MySQL query optimization and ORM tools

• experience with NoSQL forms of data storage

• cloud computing services (e.g. Amazon EC2, S3, SQS, SimpleDB etc.)

• technologies used in highly scalable websites (e.g. NGINX, Memcache, Solr/Lucene,
Hadoop, etc.)

• using JavaScript libraries for cross-browser compatibility (e.g. YUI library, EXT-JS)

• debugging with browser-based tools (e.g. Firebug, Web Developer Toolbar, MS
Script Debugger)

How do Mature Marketers Measure Social Media ROI?

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by Chris Baggott

With so much talk about the ROI of social media, I'm happy to report that all the confusion we've been reading out doesn't manifest in the real world. The reality is that according to this study by Marketing Sherpa, there is no ambiguity at all among the companies that have built effective Social Media strategies.

As you can clearly see by the graph above...the companies that have been involved know exactly what and how to measure their efforts. This is a clear explanation of the benefits of enterprise business blog software and it's power in search marketing and conversion.

The top four tell the story: Increased Traffic, Increased Lead Generation, Increased Sales Revenue and Improved Search Engine Rankings are all measurable benefits with Corporate Blogging, Twitter and other social media strategies.

This isn't meant to disparage some of the softer benefits like product awarness or PR, but let's face it....in today's marketing it's not hard to measure benefits.

Time to change the way we think about 'Websites'?

Monday, January 4, 2010 by Chris Baggott

“...the way we’ve built Web sites for the last 15 years hasn’t really been designed to deal with the amount of data we’re now seeing because of the real-time Web,” said David Pakman, a partner at Venrock in New York.

There was an interesting article today in the New York Times about where VC money will flow in 2010. Although we are not seeking any VC funding this year at Compendium, the above statement is really a compelling synopsis as to what we are doing here.

Since the beginning, 'websites' were designed to be like a Magazine or a Catalog....meaning like paper.   Of course the web isn't constrained by the limitations of paper and we interact with the web completely differently...but we still have the same website thinking that we did back in 1995. (homepage, navigation tabs, connecting paths and static content)

The design is based on a visitor "intending to come" and most web marketing has been designed to drive people to the site through branding methods and clever URL's.

The new web drives traffic through search and social media referrals. Direct navigation is rapidly shrinking as a traffic source.   Design based on URL navigation doesn't make a lot of sense any more and what we are seeing is a new model based on landing pages specific to the searchers intent along with the 'humanization' that comes from organizations leveraging social media.

This is what works so well when companies blog for search engine optimization.   Corporate Blogging Software with a focus on Search Marketing is becoming the hub of on line marketing strategy.    Do your prospects need a website or simply a page or two that is specifically targeted to meet their needs?

What David Pakman and I seem to agree on is that the web is about data and the new version is going to focus on organizing that data (content) to better meet the needs of the user.   More often than not, those users are searchers...another kind of known data right?

I was asked the other day by

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 by Chris Baggott

I was asked the other day by an interviewer if I could explain some Social Media and Search Marketing Trends I'm seeing. hmmmm.....

I used to do a lot of top ten lists but that's a little 2004 :-) Basically, this is what I wrote in an email to the interviewer:

From a trends standpoint, what I am focused on is a new study we are conducting to help bring some clarity around corporate blogging (http://compendium.com/survey/ )

Specifically we are looking to understand who the 'audience' really is.   Our hypothesis is, and the data support, that the vast majority of traffic coming into blogs is from first time visitors.

Saying that supports the reality that your 'audience' is made up of people who don't know you....not readers really, but searchers.

Following that, should business rethink their entire strategy for corporate blogging to address the needs of this audience? Is it about thought leadership, or solving immediate problems expressed by the searcher?

The biggest trend in corporate blogging is leveraging the medium as a database marketing strategy. Similar to how email marketing has evolved from 'batch & blast" to relevant messages based on data, search is evolving from a "get in front of traffic volume" strategy to one that is about delivering relevant content to specific searches. Blogging is the best tool to accomplish this.

Supporting trends include widespread employee blogging. Edelman calls employee bloggers 5 times more credible than CEO's and of course by spreading the content creation load among many you get obvious benefits of quality and quantity.    Who better to tell the stories of the problems you solve, the customers you serve and the benefits of your products and services.

Another growing content strategy involves customer or constituent feedback through direct solicitations via triggered email and specific landing pages as demonstrated by these examples.

A final supporting trend focuses on conversion.   One of my favorite sayings is that "Conversion is a better conversation".    Traditional blogging theory talks a lot about conversation...using blogs to engage in a dialog.   What's often forgotten is that there are many many ways to have a dialog with someone.    Most blogs historically have not focused on any conversion beyond "subscribe to my RSS" or leave a comment.

This has been disappointing to most Business Bloggers and to their audience of mostly first time visitors.   These visitors are trying to solve a problem.   That's how they arrived at the blog in the first place.   Marketers are beginning to recognize that the best way to serve this audience is to convert them.

Hope this helps.

New Report Ties Social Media Marketing to ROI

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 by Chris Baggott

I thought you might not have seen this yesterday from eMarketer.

As the social media channel matures it becomes much more tied to the metrics that drive the business like increased traffic, lead generation and of course sales revenue and less about PR and support. We've talked about this in the past when we discussed the difference between first generation corporate blogging and what Gartner refers to as third generation.

Also of note in this report has to do with budgets being increased for corporate blogging & content development.

Does Personalized Search Change Everything...again?

Thursday, December 17, 2009 by Chris Baggott

Danny Sullivan has a great post talking about one of the most dramatic changes to strike search marketing in a long time. The sudden and kind of quiet launch of personalized search last Friday. Danny does such a great job of explaining it, that it's better to just go see what he's teaching.

I want to discuss how this might effect Corporate Blogging as an SEO Tool, but first here is a key paragraph from Search Engine Land:

"Does this mean SEO is dead? No. I’ve warned for years that search results would be getting more personalized. Still, for many queries, there will continue to be “normal” results until Google harvests enough information to start personalizing them. SEO remains important to ensure that you’ve got that first shot at being considered. And the best tip in this new world of personalization remains the same. Make a good impression. Titles and descriptions are important, as is having outstanding content."

I believe that this changes also reinforces that marketers need to be casting an even wider net. Personalization takes the Long Tail to a whole new level.   Titles, descriptions and content are critical. SEO is becoming more of a One to One marketing tactic, beyond just ranking high on a few high volume keywords.

SEO strategy has got to focus on having many many pages, all specifically targeting as many scenarios as possible.   Content strategies need to go broad...meaning lots of contributors. This is equivalant to the introducion of dynamic content to email marketing.   Organize your content in such a way that you are delivering a highly relevant communication to the right person at the right time. If I live in Columbus Ohio and am searching for a digital camera, you better have a page specifically targeting me that's different than the page targeting the person in Kansas City or San Francisco.

Geotargeting is the most obvious place to start for personalization.   If Google learns I live in Greenfield Indiana, you can bet when I search for a digital camera it's going to do it's best to deliver one based on my location.   What else can they learn?   My spending? Favorite retailers? Size of my family?

I'm actually really excited about these developments and am looking forward to seeing how they play out. I honestly think this is going to be great for the searcher. Anyone who's followed me knows that I've basically been somewhat anti-mass-marketing my entire career.   I spent many years in catalogs and direct mail, co-founded ExactTarget to get closer to what Peppers & Rodgers called "The One To One Future" and the ideas around Compendium are squarely aimed at data-driven SEO.

As my good friend Joel Book is fond of saying: "Hang on people we are in for a wild ride" :-)