Blogging Matters

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Why Blogging Matters...

Hi! Welcome to Blogging Matters by Meghan. I am the Marketing Coordinator at Compendium Blogware.

I have to admit this is my first time being introduced to the blogging world, but I strongly believe blogging is the best way for people to search and learn about organizations, as well as enhance the customer experience. With my blog, I hope to connect with both first time bloggers and seasoned veterans. I plan to inform readers about topics revolving around blogging, marketing and how these fit into everyday life. Simply put...Blogging Matters!

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Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Who won our November challenge?

Posted Tuesday, December 2, 2008 by meghan peters

A few weeks ago I posted a blog explaining our different tactics to get everyone at Compendium to blog.

Our November challenge was centered around providing free catered lunch to the department that generated the most blog posts over a two week period.

I'm happy to announce that the client success team secured the win with a whopping 38 posts between the 4 of them. They definitely enjoyed their hot catered lunch on a cold afternoon!

We're always trying to step up the challenge each month. With December being all about the holidays we had to do something related! December's challenge - 200 posts as a company in 16 days! If we meet our goal the marketing team will provide pizza and a movie (National Lampoons Christmas Vacation - one of the best holiday movies) for lunch before everyone takes off for the holidays.

Will we meet our goal?? Stay tuned to find out!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Compendium Employees Make Top 50 Bloggers List!

Posted Tuesday, November 25, 2008 by meghan peters

I was very excited to read a recent blog post from Kyle Lacy titled Top 50 Bloggers in Indianapolis.

This list was compiled by Kyle Lacy and Lorraine Ball who put a lot of time and effort into putting the spotlight on some great bloggers throughout the Indianapolis area. Not only does this list highlight some great bloggers but it also includes 3 Compendium employees!

Congrats to Doug Karr, Chris Baggott and Megan Glover!

Check out the list and help feed your RSS subscriptions!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Incentives DO work!

Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by meghan peters

If you read my blog regularly you would notice that at Compendium we offer our employees a lot of great incentives to blog everyday! We understand the importance of blogging and see the direct impact that writing frequent and relevant blog posts can generate.

We have found the best way to motivate the employees of Compendium - food! In the month of October we offered a company incentive to blog and if we fit a certain number of posts as a company, the marketing team made breakfast for everyone! We surpassed our October goal and generated 50% more content than we did for the month of September.

Since we offered a company wide incentive in October we wanted to get a little more competitive in November. Our challenge - the department that generates the most content by this Saturday will enjoy free catered lunch of their choice from the marketing department. This has bought out a lot of competitive spirits and many great blog posts!

The main idea when trying to motivate employees to contribute to the company blog is to make it fun and worth their time! There are many ways to get creative with your incentive programs and it may even bring out the champion blogger in you!

Stay tuned for an update on the winning department!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

The Importance of Frequent Posting

Posted Wednesday, November 12, 2008 by meghan peters

So I'm not exactly the best person to talk about this topic because I fall victim to this as well. But I can't stress enough how important it is to post to your business blog frequently. At Compendium we subscribe to the 2 posts a week per person rule. I think this is the best way to go about posting, it's just enough to keep your blog fresh with topics and it's not too daunting of a task.

I was recently reading an article titled 6 Stupid Marketing Mistakes featured in IMedia Connection. The article did a great job referring to how important it is to keep up to date on your social media strategies and most importantly your business blog.

Adam Broitman the author of the article says, "every branded blog that lies dormant sends a message to the consumers who originally engaged the brand in conversation. The message sent by these brands is, "We simply don't care.""

Blogging can never be a quick fix for marketing, it has to be approached as a relationship that you are building with your readers and customers. Sure it takes some commitment, but in the long run it will pay off.

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Make Blog Content Work

Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 by meghan peters

Compendium Webinar

Often times generating content isn't the problem when companies start to work on their business blog. The problem is making the content you are writing work to your advantage.

To learn more information on how to implement simple tips to make blog content work for you, join our upcoming Webinar with Chris Baggott and Doug Karr on November 20th.

In this Webinar we'll be covering many relevant topics that companies really want to learn when writing their blog posts.

You'll Learn:

Why should companies blog.
How to create relevant blog content.
How to measure blogging ROI.

There are a limited number of spots available.

Register today!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Marketing Trends

Posted Friday, November 7, 2008 by meghan peters

The marketing industry is much like technology, things are constantly changing and you can never feel ahead of the curve. I'm sure every company has felt the strain of keeping up with the newest marketing trends.

Blogging has been characterized as a fleeting trend in an effort to try new marketing efforts. And not only labeled a trend, but a trend that won't last. I find it hard to believe that blogging is just a trend, not only for the fact that I work at a blogging company, but for the simple fact that we have dozens of clients that see the great benefits that blogging has to offer every day. Many of which have the revelation that blogs can be more useful then an actual company website.

When you work for a blogging company and see new clients join the Compendium family daily you gain a renewed sense that blogging is here to stay for the long haul. I would suggest jumping on the bus before it's full!

If you need a little more research on the benefits that business blogging has to offer check out our Whitepaper: Considering Blogging?

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Blogging Best Practices Through Video

Posted Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by meghan peters

There are many schools of thought when it comes to blogging best practices. So in an effort to help guide you in the right direction two of our client success managers, Kristen Raves and Jess Wehner, put together this hilarious video mimicking the Saturday Night Live Digital Short "Lazy Sunday".

Check it out!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Blogs & Business Do Mix!

Posted Monday, October 27, 2008 by meghan peters

For many the old saying may go, "blogs and business don't mix!" Fortunately for us this simply isn't true anymore. Business blogging has become more and more prevalent in the workplace today.

There are many benefits of blogging from the marketing stand point, but what about from an internal stand point. A recent article in Business Week titled "The Inside Story of Company Blogs" outlines just this point. There are many companies that blog to gain SEO, improve their marketing efforts and possibly advance lead generation, but blogs can also be a great tool for internal information sharing as well.

According to Dave Weick CIO at McDonald's, "COO Michael Roberts, launched his internal blog last fall. He used it to spread information through the company's global operations and receive feedback. Now McDonald's is distributing blog access to thousands of employees, who will use them to report on operations at restaurants worldwide".

The main point to take away from this article is that blogging and business do go hand in hand no matter how a company is using it. So if you're blogging from an internal standpoint and gaining better communication from your employees or blogging externally to gain more customers and business, isn't every aspect a positive one? Just another thing to add to your list of reasons to love blogging!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Are you ready for the 60 Second Blogging Challenge?

Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2008 by meghan peters

Thousands of businesses and organizations have asked: I know I should be blogging but how? Why? And how can you help me? Here is your chance to find out.

Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge with me! No blogging experience necessary just the desire to learn how business blogging can generate demand for your product or service. Log onto Compendium's website to take the challenge!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

And the Winner is...

Posted Tuesday, October 14, 2008 by meghan peters

In one of my past blog posts I shared information about our on-going employee contest here at Compendium called the Nifty Gift Blogging Challenge.

In case you missed the post, here is the gist of how it works:
All of us here at Compendium have a challenge to generate the most relevant content over a 30 day period. The winner will be announced on a monthly basis and will also receive a Nifty Gift from the marketing department.

The main goal of our Challenge is to show that it's not difficult to post a relevant blog on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. Along with achieving this, we are fostering some healthy competition between the employees of Compendium.

During our company meeting last week the winner(s) of the Nifty Gift Blogging Challenge from September were announced.

And the Winner(s) are...

Kristen Raves (Client Success Manager)
Jess Wehner (Client Success Manager)
Sarah Sedberry (Client Success Manager)

All three girls tied with 9 blog posts for the month of September!

We're excited to announce the winner for October, we know there's some fierce competition for the title!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Should I control content?

Posted Thursday, October 9, 2008 by meghan peters

The concern a lot of companies have when starting their blogging initiative is content control. This is a very legitimate concern and unfortunately sometimes keeps companies from embarking on blogging.

So what should I consider when controlling content?

There are a few questions to ask yourself when controlling content and blogging for a business, the first of these should be; is our company gaining a positive image from our blog?

Blogs are meant to be another (more human) way for people to connect with you and your employees, it should not be a way for your employees to get issues of their chest or talk about their crazy Saturday night. The goal is to talk about your products, services, incentives or clients and if you're putting your personality into those types of topics there should be no reason for controlling that type of content.

Secondly, ask yourself; is my content relative to my business?

Along with generating content, humanizing your marketing and boosting SEO, the content you generate needs to be centered around something. Straying from your original idea won't help bring more readers to your blog. You have to remember that they are reading my post for a reason, to learn more about me and my products or service. If you don't talk about company related issues, people aren't going to hang in there for your next post. They want to get information immediately, thats why they landed on your blog in the first place.

Finally, always consider; am I being descriptive enough?

The easiest way to have your blog found in search is to be descriptive. When people search for something in Google they use adjectives to describe what they're looking for. This is like winning the lottery for anyone writing content on a blog. When you're talking about your new product, use plenty of adjectives and remember to describe it as something you would search for in Google yourself. Never over think what you are trying to say, the more human you are in your writing, the more readers will relate to you.

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Exclusive New Webinar: Profit from Blogging

Posted Monday, October 6, 2008 by meghan peters

Sign Up Here

Have you read information about how business blogging can benefit your company? Are you still curious about how you can really profit from blogging? Compendium can help!

Join our upcoming Webinar: Profit from Blogging with Chris Baggott and Debbie Weil. October 21st 10-11 AM EST.

You Will Learn:

How to prep for a profitable blogging strategy.
- Tactics that will immediately generate demand.
How to measure, track and adjust ROI.

If this sounds like something that could benefit your organization, don't hesitate to register today. Only 100 spots available!

Register Here.

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Blog Alternatives

Posted Friday, October 3, 2008 by meghan peters

I often think that when people are contemplating the thought of starting a blog, should it be for business or personal use, the thought that comes to mind first is having to generate copy. Don't get me wrong, obviously blogs require copy, but there are other tools that can be integrated into your blog to help break up the repetitiveness.

A few things I have seen work in blogs to help boost your blog visually include: CTA's (Calls to Action), links, pictures and video. CTA's and links can definitely work hand in hand with trying to provide your readers with more information. CTA's are great from a design perspective (if you have that capability) and links work to provide quick, easy information if you don't have the luxury of someone designing for you. Either way, both tools can be utilized to provide a break from the mundane, and readers will appreciate the fact that you have provided an outlet for more information.

Pictures and videos are also great resources and bring a lot of enhancement to your posts. The benefits can really be two fold, pictures provide a quick view of a point you may need to get across, or your blog topic, and they can be linked to another site. Video excerpts in your blogs are a tremendous tool that should be utilized if you have the capability. We recently had a client referral program that gave away a Flip Ultra. This is a very user friendly gadget that can be used in conjunction with your blog.

Chris Baggott has a post in his blog explaining how video blogging can bring new life to your post. Read the entire post here.

The most important information to take away from this post is that blogs don't need to be all about copy. Learn to branch out and be creative, this will pay off in the long run and give you a break from the burden of creating copy!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Casual vs. Professional

Posted Monday, September 29, 2008 by meghan peters

Now that I have a few webinar's with Compendium under my belt, there are a couple of reoccurring questions that always come up from people attending. One of the most common is how to have a professional blog, but make it enjoyable to read. This is a great question, and one I struggle with myself.

After writing my blog for a couple of months now, I truly believe this is the best advice to follow when writing your posts. Be yourself and talk about what you know!

You can tell right away when someone is passionate about their family, pets, job or favorite sports team, they get excited and want to share all the information they can. This is how you can approach your blog. Think about what you feel passion for regarding your job, customers or products and take it from there! Your posts will have a lot of personality, be a joy to read and tackle professional issues all at the same time.

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Compendium's Blogging Challenge

Posted Thursday, September 18, 2008 by meghan peters

Compendium Blogware is a blogging software company, so it makes sense for the employees of Compendium to practice what we preach. This is why we are implementing our new Blogging Challenge for '08! All of us here at Compendium have a challenge to generate the most relevant content over a 30 day period. The winner will be announced on a monthly basis and will also receive a Nifty Gift from the marketing department.

The main goal of our Challenge is to show that it's not difficult to post a relevant blog on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. Along with achieving this, we are fostering some healthy competition between the employees of Compendium.

Not only is this a great idea for Compendium, it's also a great idea for companies using a blogging platform for marketing, as a creative way to get more content out there.

Stay tuned for Compendium's September winner and an update on what our Nifty Gift turns out to be!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Blog Research and Social Networking

Posted Friday, September 12, 2008 by meghan peters

As part of my job description here at Compendium, I am responsible for the social networking efforts of the company. For the past couple of weeks I have been doing some blog research (Yes, I have really been reading blogs) on the best options for Compendium. There are many reasons why I have chosen to read user blogs instead of all the paid copy on the public websites.

First of all, the people writing the blog are real users who know the functionality of the product and the pros and cons. They aren't partial to the product for any reason like the people writing copy for the public website. I honestly believe that blog writers are honest and really want to get the word out about products they have used, regardless of a positive or negative experience. Those are the reviews I want to be reading!

Secondly, I like the different options doing blog research offers. If I read a positive review of a product, that's great news! But, I also might want to read about a negative experience to get a feel for the product. Blogs are the only true way to get a variety of content for research.

Finally, reading blogs about products, services or companies makes me feel more comfortable moving forward with a choice. I feel like I relied on an honest opinion of people who have been in my shoes before. This is great because when I make a big decision I like to know that I asked for an opinion and then weighed my options. Blogs are great tools for providing this for your customers or prospects.

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Curious about Business Blogging?

Posted Thursday, September 4, 2008 by meghan peters

If you have been trying to make up your mind about business blogging and still haven't come to a conclusion yet, Compendium just might have an answer for you!

Clear your calendars on September 17, 2008 from 1-2pm EST. Chris Baggott, CEO/CoFounder of Compendium will be hosting a Webinar covering his Whitepaper: Business Blogging: The Key to Local Search.

You will learn:

What is local search?
How to maximize local search campaigns.
How content can influence local search (and what that content should be).
Why Blogging works for local search.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in and could possibly be the answer you have been looking for, click here to get more information!

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Blogging is Easy as 1..2..3!

Posted Monday, September 1, 2008 by meghan peters

Over my long labor day weekend I had the chance to relax, catch up with family and friends and talk some shop about blogging. Ever since I started working with Compendium I find myself excited to get the chance to educate someone new on the benefits of blogging. I was out to dinner with some friends and we were talking about our jobs, and I got into the topic of how beneficial blogs are to businesses. All of my friends seemed to agree that blogging benefits companies in many different ways, the only thing they were hung up on is how to write an effective blog. I certainly don't consider myself an expert on how to write a great blog, but I do think it can be as easy as 1..2..3.

1. Write something that relates to people. I think it is very important for companies to write things in their blogs that will help connect them to people who don't already work for the company. Anything that can be added into a blog that will help humanize your company will always be beneficial.
2. Use as many descriptive words as possible. One of the most important things to remember is that when people are searching for something they are going to be looking for something specific. The best way to get SEO is to always use adjectives when describing your products or services.
3. Even short blog posts matter. A lot of people are concerned about how long their blog posts should be. The important thing to remember is that even a few sentences matter, that's why it's so important to remember to use tip #2. As long as you can use as many descriptive words as possible, your post can be less than a paragraph and still be very beneficial.

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

Blogging For Better Business

Posted Thursday, August 21, 2008 by meghan peters

I am happy to announce that I'm currently going through one of the most stressful times in my life...planning a wedding! I've done a lot of research on venues, churches, florists, bakeries, DJ's and etc. But there is one thing that I have found astonishing...not many people in the wedding industry have blogs! I know that when I do research on something the most important thing to me, like many people, is gathering other opinions.

I have a great example of how blogs would work perfectly for the wedding industry. My fiance and I were going around town touring reception venues and we narrowed our decision between two places. We were very interested in getting a tasting of the food to help us with our decision, but one of the venues wasn't equipped to have a tasting. I was shocked and started to actually consider becoming a wedding crasher to taste the food, when the venue told me they have 100 comment sheets from past weddings that I could look through. So they printed out all the sheets and faxed them to me for my review. This made me think how great a blog would work for them! Not only could they blog about their services, but the past brides could post comments for them. This idea alone would save 10 trees a year and along with saving the environment they could boost their bookings.

There are many aspects as to why business blogging can be beneficial to an organization no matter how they plan to use it.

We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

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