Megan Glover's Blogging With Purpose

Welcome to Blogging With Purpose

Welcome to my blog: Blogging With Purpose, I'm Megan - thanks for visiting! I'm the Director of Marketing for Compendium Blogware.

I'm a newbie blog author, but not new to the "blogosphere" I've worked in various online marketing capacities and seen first hand the power of blogging. I believe any organization with a presence on the web should have a blog. Blogs add a human voice to your organization, return well in search engines and blogs can help you acquire new customers. It's a win-win-win tool in my book. Feel free to agree, feel free to disagree, just please do so in the comments section provided ;).

Largely educational, a dash of pop culture, a huge creative outlet... that's my purpose for blogging.

Blogging from Blog Indiana

Posted Saturday, August 16, 2008 by Megan Glover

Sitting here in the lobby at the IUPUI Campus Center where Blog Indiana is taking place. A great turn out, lots of great bloggers and a really impressive line up of sessions and speakers. Here are some examples:

What makes a great corporate blog,

Blog Review/Critquie Open Discussion,

Showing off you blog.

Blog Etiquette and Ethics

Great to be around blogging enthusiasts from Indiana and beyond. Blog Indiana runs today and tomorrow - there's still time to register for the afternoon and tomorrow's sessions. You can do so here: http://conference.blogindiana.com/

Using Corporte Blogs to Disclose Information to Investors

Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by Megan Glover

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blogging for Search: Text Book Example

Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008 by Megan Glover

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

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

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

Does this pattern of events sound familiar?

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

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

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

Blog Squad Calling

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

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.

Unassuming Blogging ROI

Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2008 by Megan Glover

I was on the phone with a Compendium client yesterday and she mentioned that they just wrapped a round of hiring and that their Compendium blogs played a significant role in that process. My ears perked and I said, "tell me more!"

As a small sized company with larger competitors to choose from, attracting bright talent is always challenging . Since implementing their blogs though, they've realized that talent was finding them. Moreover, interested candidates were visiting their blogs to learn about their company and learn about the employees at the company.

There are some great take aways here:

1.) ROI is not always metric based there are other unassuming benefits to blogging.

2.) Adding human voice to your organization really does matter! Particularly when it comes to hiring.

Whether they planned it or not, having a blogging strategy really put their company above and beyond their competition.

One of their interviewees even asked "Can I Blog?"

Their response....you're hired!

Blogging and vMarketing Webinar Replay

Posted Monday, June 30, 2008 by Megan Glover

In my last blog post I encouraged everyone to attend the upcoming Compendium and Vontoo Webinar: Humanize Your Marketing with Blogging and vMarketing. Thanks to all who did, we had a great discussion! Check out the replay here.

My favorite part about the events are the Question and Answer sessions. I'm always amazed by the candid blogging questions the business attendees throw out. One in particular I'd like to share from our most recent webinar:

By empowering your employees to blog, do you risk losing company vision to employee opinion?

What a great question! At, Compendium we believe in blogging from the bottom up. That means is encouraging your employees to blog and generate blog content as opposed to just the c-level folks within your organization that have previously dominated business blogs.

So, how do you maintain company vision while empowering your employees to blog?

1.) Organized Strategy - like most marketing initiatives think before you leap.Take the time to designate a blog administrator and come up with a blogging strategy that works for your business.

2.) Administrative Layers - choose a blog software that allows you to oversee posts and comments before they go live.

2.) Trust. If you are trusting your employees with business cards to represent your organization, you should feel comfortable having them blog.

With these three simple points in place, blogs will change your business and ensure your message stays on point.

Humanize Your Marketing through Blogging

Posted Friday, June 20, 2008 by Megan Glover

Last week we wrapped a co-hosted Webinar with Vontoo called: Humanize Your Marketing with Blogging and vMarketing.

You can read more about Compendium's Webinar here but what I really want to focus right now is this: why blogs are the perfect vehicle to humanize your brand. But don't just take my word for it!

According to the 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer Study:

It's clear that when it comes to traditional authority figures – whether they're chief executives or heads of state – people trust them less," says Mr. Edelman. "Employees are the new credible source of information. We have data that shows an employee blog is five times more credible than a CEO blog – and I say this as a CEO blogger.

Read the full report here.

There are two take aways from this particular quote:

1.) People buy from people and they buy from people just like themselves.

2.) Consumers trust blogs. They trust blogs to gather information, communicate your brand, they find blogs "credible".

Now, think about the ways your company is communicating to your prospects. Do you have a blog, and if so who are your bloggers? If you aren't blogging what marketing vehicles are you using you humanize your message?

We'll answer all of these questions and more... after the Webinar. So, if this has perked your interest at all then please accept this personal invitation to attend.

Small Business Blogging

Posted Friday, June 13, 2008 by Megan Glover

I attended a networking event today where I met the nicest gentlemen interested in starting a business blog. Here's his company's profile:

BtoC HVAC Company

Small Business

Fewer than 10 employees

Looking to increase their online presence.

After discussing Compendium and our multi blog approach to business blogging he said,

"Well, we're a small company - I only need one or two blogs because we don't have the manpower for more." I said, "GREAT then Compendium is the perfect solution for you."

Why say that? Because our software takes the content your company generates whether that's from two, three or five hundred bloggers and duplicates that content into narrowly specific keyword blogs. These keyword blogs are determined by the organic keywords your prospects are using to find you!

Essentially what you're doing is turning individual posts into 6, 19, 12 posts all depending on the keywords you're targeting. Thus, making Compendium a more dynamic and useful tool for small businesses concerned about generating content and manpower.

I love watching the lightbulb go on when I explain this concept to businesses. Our "work smarter, not harder" approach to blogging really makes sense.

So, I'll ask you... what do you think? Could this be useful to your business or organization. We want to know!

Profiting from Business Blogs

Posted Friday, June 6, 2008 by Megan Glover

Compendium CoFounder/CEO, Chris Baggott was featured along with Debbie Weil, corporate blogging thought leader, in a recent article by Target Marketing: 5 Best Practices to Profit from Business Blogs.

The article focuses on the top blogging trends and also alludes to the future of corporate blogging:

“In a couple of years, you’ll go to any corporate homepage and you’ll expect something there that is fresh, real, where you can leave a question and learn something that is not just that static corporate speak about the company,” she [Debbie Weil] explains.

The bottom line is people buy from people. Consumers are marketing savvy... they know when their being fed corporate speak. Why do people turn to online reviews of a product before buying? Why do I look at the recipe reviews before trying? Because I enjoy that human interaction... and blogging is one way businesses can accomplish this.

More later on humanizing your marketing, we're actually working on a Webinar on this very topic featuring Chris and Dustin Sapp CoFounder/President of Vontoo.

In the meantime enjoy the Target Marketing article. It's a great piece of educational info if you're thinking about implementing a corporate blogging strategy.

Refer a Friend Get a $50 Starbucks Card

Posted Thursday, May 22, 2008 by Megan Glover

I'm really excited about this new referral promotion we're running and can't wait to share. So here it is:

Refer a Friend to Compendium Blogware and regardless of what happens we'll send you a $50 Starbucks card. It's as simple as that. So, stop wondering and start referring!

New Can't Miss Webinar!

Posted Tuesday, May 13, 2008 by Megan Glover

You're Invited!

Topic: How To Use Blogging and Email to Generate Leads and Delight Customers

Date & Time: May 20th, 2-3pm EST

Hosts: Compendium, Habeas and the Email Experience Council

Don't wait until it's too late. Get details and sign up now!

Organic + Paid Search = High Brand Recall

Posted Friday, May 2, 2008 by Megan Glover

I was sifting through blogging articles today, and ran across one of my favorites and immediately knew I had to share: Brandweek's Google: Organic Results, Plus Paid, Will Pay Off

“Online advertising should also support an overall online presence by working with organic search results,” Price said. “According to the study, advertisers with a presence in both the top organic search results and the top ad placements have the highest brand recall.”

This article is a great take away of the marriage between paid and organic search. What the article doesn't address; however, is how to achieve such top results. Engaging in a PPC campaign is pretty self-explanatory "pay per click" but how do you achieve top organic results?

That's where blogging enters the picture. Blogging, particularly blogging with a multi blog software such as Compendium allows you to cast a much larger net in search and target many, many more keywords organically as compared your website.

Take one of our Compendium clients, for instance. BabyPlus. They blogs yield traffic from nearly 1000 keyword phrases in a 30 Day period! And the great thing about organic search is those 1000 keywords are free... no pay per click needed here.

So, when thinking about the "how" in this equation, don't overlook blogging as an organic search tool. It quite possibly could be your most powerful weapon to achieving top organic results.

Anatomy of a SERP

Posted Thursday, April 17, 2008 by Megan Glover

There are two way to get found in search: Paid and Organic. Do you know where your clicks are coming from?

The image to the left is a heat map which indicates what the average searcher is naturally drawn to and naturally drawn to click on.

The results on right side of the page are paid results.

The results in the middle of the page, where all the clicks are happening, those are organic search results.

OK so what does the anatomy of a SERP (search engine results page) have to do with blogging. The answer is everything! The heat map above illustrates precisely where the "hot" online real estate lies: in organic search and blogs can help you get there.

Why? A few reasons: Blogs are organic, search engines love blogs, they return well in search, and with a multi blog system like Compendium, you're casting a wider net to be found in organic search. You might be asking what does "multi blog" mean?

It means that we believe in author driven blogs and topic driven blogs. Our proprietary software organizes your blog content into both author blogs and topical blogs, maximizing your exposure on the web and casting a much larger organic net to be found in search, for the topics you want to be searched on.

We're truly changing the way we think about blogging here at Compendium. And I invite you to learn more!

Blogging Webinars

Posted Tuesday, April 15, 2008 by Megan Glover

For those of you who attended and would like a recap, or if you were unable to attend Chris' last webinar: How to Create and Manage Blog content you can access the entire Webinar here.

Our friends at Webinar Resources put this great on demand presentation together! We're really excited to be able to share.

Also, mark your calendars for April 30th for another can't miss Webinar: 5 Compelling Reasons Small Businesses Should Blog. You can register here.

I've been so overwhelmed with the participation, particularly the Q&A portion at our blogging Webinars, that I'm absolutely convinced many if not all businesses out there are toying around the idea of implementing a blogging strategy.

The major hurdle seems to be "but how". And, that's where Compendium enters the picture. Let us be your blogging experts. We're not just blogging software - we're a full service blogging solution. We want businesses to blog, but want businesses to blog well.

If you're one of those who knows you should blog but a little caught up in the "how", I really encourage you to attend one of our blogging webinars or contact us and speak to a live individual. We'd be more than happy to walk you through it - no experience necessary, just a desire to grow your business through blogging.

"Chief Blogger"

Posted Thursday, April 10, 2008 by Megan Glover

I must admit, even working for a blogging software company, that the title Chief Blogger is new to me. In fact at Compendium, ever single employee blogs and fuels the content for our blogging strategy. It works out quite well actually as we've found blogging enthusiasts in most nontraditional positions, software engineers, VP of sales, etc.

My point to all of this is that Kodak announced last week they were hiring a Chief Blogger. The postion went to Kodak veteran Jenny Cisney, a blog enthusiast who will not contribute to two of Kodaks blogs "A Thousand Words" and "A Thousand Nerds".

My first thought... is this for real? I'd love to see that job description.

Regardless of how your blogging strategy is structured, you should be blogging for a purposes such as: SEO, lead generation, customer acquisition and to provide that human voice to your organization. And that purpose should be shared with ever single contributor.

The take away from all of this is, most companies aren't going hire or even consider hiring a chief blogger... that just doesn't seem to fit into most budgets. But that's OK you can still implement a blogging strategy and serve your purpose well. Enlist those smart folks in your organization to blog, find blogging talent in the most unassuming places. You might be surprised at what you find.

Blogging and Call to Actions

Posted Friday, April 4, 2008 by Megan Glover

I was looking at our client blogs today and happened upon a great call to action (CTA) on ROWhy!Marketing's blog. You can access their blog here.

Clear call to actions on your blogs turn your blog readers into action takers and therefore prospects. Simple call to actions include:

Sign up for our newsletter.
Learn more about our company.
Schedule a consultation.
Contact us for more information.

The purpose being, if you assume your blog readers know how to act and what to act on... Your assumption is costing you, literally.By placing a simple call to action on your blog you can take the guessing away from your readers and evoke them to act on your terms.

This is not only a great way to capture visitor info but it's also a good way to measure the success of your blogs and messaging. At Compendium every single one of our clients have call to actions on their blogs but yet we're amazed at how many blogs these days are missing such a simple component.

Just another way to truly add purpose behind your blogging strategy and hopefully acquire new prospects in the process.

Nice Mention from Duct Tape Marketing

Posted Thursday, March 20, 2008 by Megan Glover

Duct Tape Marketing

I'm a real fan of John Jantsch and Duct Tape Marketing. So, what a wonderful surprise it was to get a great Compendium mention on his blog!

We've been fortunate to have some great press mentions lately between the Wall Street Journal and now Duct Tape Marketing and it's wonderful to see all of these channels adopting the new way to think about blogging.

In both of the articles they really illustrate new and old way to address blogging and blogging software! Think about it, even 5 years ago blogging was truly for the individuals. A platform for individuals to become thought leaders in a given topic or field. Now with multi-blog platforms such as Compendium companies are starting to look at blogging through a different lens.

Blogging now a days is really evolving into channel for social media marketing. Organizations and businesses are now harnessing the power of this channel and using blogs for other purposes such as SEO, lead generation and also putting a human voice to their brand. Businesses are empowering their organizations to blog from the ground up rather than from the C level and down, which has been the trend in the past.

So I turn the tables to you... what do you think? What blogging trends are you seeing these days? Do you agree that there's an old and new way to look at blogging?

Blogs as Reputation Management

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.

B2B Marketing Conference

Posted Thursday, March 6, 2008 by Megan Glover

My colleague Jenni and I just got back from the B2B conference in Orlando, FL and it did not disappoint. In addition to exhibiting Compendium at the show and meeting a lot of great prospects, the content of the conference 100% affirms what Compendium as an organizational blogging tool is all about! That being, blogging is no longer considered an experimental marketing tactic. In fact as Yuchun Lee, CEO of Unica and keynote speaker at the conference pointed out, marketers are turning to blogs and other viral forms of marketing as proven tactics to target key customers and prospects. Hear that… blogging as a proven tactic.

So, how do blogs exactly target key customers and prospects? Easy, blogs are better tools to get your brand in front of your key customers and prospects. Blogs return well in search. Search engines love the fact that blogs are content based (giving the robots lots of space to crawl), updated frequently and recently, and finally that blogs can have a very narrow focus making the content even more applicable for the searcher.

Therefore, one can assume that your blogs have a valid chance of reaching your audience before your website even does! If the blogs are going to be the first point of reference for potential prospects why not take advantage and use blogs as an acquisition tool. You can do so by experimenting with different calls to action that entice your prospects to “sign up for our online newsletter”, “join our mailing list”, “schedule a consultation”, etc. Capturing the data from your blogs return potential leads and a source to track your analytics and prove the ROI of blogging.

Before I close on the B2B conference I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a great big thanks to the speakers and the friends we met along the way. Exact Target friend Joel Book held a wonderful session on 7 Habits of Highly Effective Email Marketers (reminding me that Compendium is probably past due for an email deliverability audit!) And, new Compendium friend, Jamie Smith CEO of Engine Ready gave a wonderful session on analytics and how to link offline tactics to online advertising. Great new technology linking inbound calls to Web analytics, very cool stuff! Thanks for the great sessions, Joel and Jamie!

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