I had a fun lunch today with a Real Estate office that has become a client of Compendium Blogware. This company has about 15 bloggers and are populating about 50 topical blogs.
The problem has been in content creation. We see this a lot and Doug Karr and I will talk at length about this during our webinar on November 20th. Generally, when people contemplate a Small Business Blog or any tactic involving Blogs and Business, it always comes down to what to write about.
My core blogging advice is; always talk about the customer. What does the customer want to read about? These folks at the Real Estate office were talking about highbrow stuff like the Economic conditions or financial real estate outlooks and not talking about the houses.
My message to business bloggers was this: Look at your search terms. This is telling you exactly what your prospects want you to talk about. "homes near butler schools" pretty clear right? Searchers are telling you clearly what your small business blog should be about. Just talk about what you do, make your stories short and pointed. If I had a listing for a house in this environment, I would blog about that house a couple times a day. Blog about the bathrooms, blog about the master bedroom, blog about the view and the construction. Blog about the Schools. All of these are seperate opportunities for you to leverage your blogging platform to move your business forward.
I'm sure I've got my friends turned around. Just don't overthink it. I'll turn to CNN if I want news about home foreclosure rates, I'm coming to you for real estate blogs.
Posted Monday, November 17, 2008 by
PJ Hinton
Blogging at CNet's Webware, Rafe Needleman writes about how he's now tracking web companies that are hiring, in addition to those companies that are firing. It's a sign of these shaky economic times.
While we may not be located out in the technical paradise that is the Silicon Valley, we are hiring nonetheless. If you're interested, you can check out our career opportunities page. Right now we're looking for a Business Development Manager. If you decide to apply, be sure to let 'em know you saw my blog post. ;-)
While we may not be located out in the technical paradise that is the Silicon Valley, we are hiring nonetheless. If you're interested, you can check out our career opportunities page. Right now we're looking for a Business Development Manager. If you decide to apply, be sure to let 'em know you saw my blog post. ;-)
Posted Monday, November 17, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
I had a conversation the other day about Attorney Marketing. Do people really go online to find a lawyer?
Just like any business marketing, Agricultural Marketing, Tourism Marketing, Non-profit marketing, even University Marketing...all benefit from easy to use blogging software with a goal of Search Engine Optimization.
Up to 80% of all web interactions begin with a search. People can learn more about a law firm or any organization in 5 minutes online than any directory or yellow pages. All marketing is Success Marketing...meaning you do the activity that drives the most success. Lawyers: Websites alone are not enough for successful web marketing....start a business blog.
Just like any business marketing, Agricultural Marketing, Tourism Marketing, Non-profit marketing, even University Marketing...all benefit from easy to use blogging software with a goal of Search Engine Optimization.
Up to 80% of all web interactions begin with a search. People can learn more about a law firm or any organization in 5 minutes online than any directory or yellow pages. All marketing is Success Marketing...meaning you do the activity that drives the most success. Lawyers: Websites alone are not enough for successful web marketing....start a business blog.
Posted Monday, November 17, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Some blog software applications have the ability to manage links within their system. Companies utilize those links to promote the latest articles or news items about their company. Links are important, though, and should not be constrained to your business blogging application.
If you're blogging for SEO, it's a great idea to share your links external from your blog. My favorite bookmarking system is Del.icio.us:
The nice thing about bookmarking systems like Delicious is that Search Engines utilize them to determine relevance... if a lot of individuals bookmark a link, it's relevant to the description and keywords that it's organized under.
If you're a huge fan of Firefox, there's an incredible Delicious add-on that allows you to save, edit, and manage your delicious bookmarks right in the browser so you never actually have to visit Delicious.
Utilizing an RSS Sidebar widget in Compendium, we can publish your bookmark feed directly to your Compendium Blog. This approach is a vast improvement than managing your links strictly within the application because search engines see the links promoted twice now, once in Delicious and once in your sidebar.
That's better blogging - from Compendium.
If you're blogging for SEO, it's a great idea to share your links external from your blog. My favorite bookmarking system is Del.icio.us:
The nice thing about bookmarking systems like Delicious is that Search Engines utilize them to determine relevance... if a lot of individuals bookmark a link, it's relevant to the description and keywords that it's organized under.
If you're a huge fan of Firefox, there's an incredible Delicious add-on that allows you to save, edit, and manage your delicious bookmarks right in the browser so you never actually have to visit Delicious.
Utilizing an RSS Sidebar widget in Compendium, we can publish your bookmark feed directly to your Compendium Blog. This approach is a vast improvement than managing your links strictly within the application because search engines see the links promoted twice now, once in Delicious and once in your sidebar.
That's better blogging - from Compendium.
Posted Sunday, November 16, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
The other day I had the opportunity to talk business blogging with my good friend Doug Karr and a couple other great panelists at an event for large company marketing folks called Confluence. Erik Deckers put the event together and hosted us at a Comedy Club on Mass Ave. I was really impressed with the quality of questions and the high level of engagement from this group of mainly non-bloggers.
In attendance were marketers from Lawyers offices, Agricultural companies and even big Pharmaceutical Corporate types, all looking to learn blogging best practices. It's clear that there is a growing trend to learn more about how to best use blogging software as part of a legitimate and effective marketing strategy.
In attendance were marketers from Lawyers offices, Agricultural companies and even big Pharmaceutical Corporate types, all looking to learn blogging best practices. It's clear that there is a growing trend to learn more about how to best use blogging software as part of a legitimate and effective marketing strategy.
Posted Sunday, November 16, 2008 by
PJ Hinton
I saw a post over at businessblogs.us which warns of the risk of a corporate blog turning into a splog, a blog that's just plain spammy. Quoting the author:
The author asks the reader who is in charge of his or her corporate blogging initiative and argues that it should be in the hands of the customer service team, not the advertising folks. Here at Compendium, we take that approach one step further, giving every employee an individual blog. That includes sales, marketing, client success, and even the techies like me.
I do my share of talking about the ways our product can address a customer's needs, but I also spend a lot time talking about other things, such as current events in the technology world, issues that arise in the blogging community, and matters that impact the development of our application.
It's my goal that someone stumbling across my posts will realize that the people involved in development are dedicated to building a reliable and usable product. We're not just selling software as a service, we are selling a culture and a team that will help meet our customers' goals.
Because sometimes corporate blogs and the bloggers that write them are very short sighted. Writing every blog post as a sales pitch for a product or service. Ultimately becoming one big spam blog. Which does just the opposite of what it’s supposed to do for your readers. Instead of turning them into loyal customers, it sends them back to the search engines to look for what they really came for.This is a valid point. One of the danger points for blogs and business is treating each blog post as a chance to make a hard sell. People are smart, and they can sense when they are being sold to. People are repulsed by this in real life, so you can imagine how well it works when a relationship can be terminated with the ease of clicking on the Close button on a web browser window.
The author asks the reader who is in charge of his or her corporate blogging initiative and argues that it should be in the hands of the customer service team, not the advertising folks. Here at Compendium, we take that approach one step further, giving every employee an individual blog. That includes sales, marketing, client success, and even the techies like me.
I do my share of talking about the ways our product can address a customer's needs, but I also spend a lot time talking about other things, such as current events in the technology world, issues that arise in the blogging community, and matters that impact the development of our application.
It's my goal that someone stumbling across my posts will realize that the people involved in development are dedicated to building a reliable and usable product. We're not just selling software as a service, we are selling a culture and a team that will help meet our customers' goals.
Posted Sunday, November 16, 2008 by
Jess Wehner
Why am I blogging on a Saturday night? Some would say because I don't have a life, my husband would say because I like to work too much, but both would be wrong (well at least I hope!) I'm blogging because my department is in stiff competition against other departments at Compendium to win most blog posts over a two week period.
Looking for a good way to motivate your employees to blog? Try a contest!
Currently, the Compendium Blogware marketing team is sponsoring a contest for the department that gets the most posts up from November 4-15. The prize is a free lunch for your department (and bragging rights, of course). To be honest, at first I wasn't that excited about the contest. I mean, realistically I have tons of other things to do during the day and I figured I'd be fine with just bringing a $2 Lean Cuisine for lunch. Then, the thrill of competition spread through our department like a wild fire. Being that most of us are athletes, I think competitiveness just comes naturally to the client success team.
But honestly, I think a little fun spirited competition would be helpful to any business blogging program. Instead of pushing your bloggers with phone calls and reminder emails (which I know you will sometimes have to do), why not try something fun that will hopefully get people excited about blogging and provide them a reward for their great efforts. And to top it all off- your blog program is going to reap the SEO benefits.
So wish us luck! I'll share the results on Monday!
Looking for a good way to motivate your employees to blog? Try a contest!
Currently, the Compendium Blogware marketing team is sponsoring a contest for the department that gets the most posts up from November 4-15. The prize is a free lunch for your department (and bragging rights, of course). To be honest, at first I wasn't that excited about the contest. I mean, realistically I have tons of other things to do during the day and I figured I'd be fine with just bringing a $2 Lean Cuisine for lunch. Then, the thrill of competition spread through our department like a wild fire. Being that most of us are athletes, I think competitiveness just comes naturally to the client success team. But honestly, I think a little fun spirited competition would be helpful to any business blogging program. Instead of pushing your bloggers with phone calls and reminder emails (which I know you will sometimes have to do), why not try something fun that will hopefully get people excited about blogging and provide them a reward for their great efforts. And to top it all off- your blog program is going to reap the SEO benefits.
So wish us luck! I'll share the results on Monday!
Posted Saturday, November 15, 2008 by
PJ Hinton
In today's edition of the Indianapolis Star, columnist Dana Hunsinger has a story about how smaller retailers are trying to sell their wares in a tough economic climate.
Some of the things that the retailers interviewed have been doing:
But mass market advertising isn't the only game in town. Since these types of shops are selling a niche product in a local area, wouldn't it make sense to consider whether their potential customers might be doing long tail or even local searches? One of our customers, State Street Exchange in Greenfield, IN, which blogs under the title of Greenfield Liquors, is an ongoing success story for both of these kinds of search marketing campaigns.
I wonder how many of these businesses could level out their uphill holiday sales battles with a modest investment in money and time to blogging about their businesses? By increasing the likelihood of getting found, they might land some sales they weren't expecting.
Some of the things that the retailers interviewed have been doing:
- Marking down some items as clearance earlier in November rather than waiting until the end of the moth.
- Promoting holiday shopping items earlier in the year, perhaps as early as with the passage of Halloween.
- Eliminating the middle man in the supply chain so that prices can be kept competitive
But mass market advertising isn't the only game in town. Since these types of shops are selling a niche product in a local area, wouldn't it make sense to consider whether their potential customers might be doing long tail or even local searches? One of our customers, State Street Exchange in Greenfield, IN, which blogs under the title of Greenfield Liquors, is an ongoing success story for both of these kinds of search marketing campaigns.
I wonder how many of these businesses could level out their uphill holiday sales battles with a modest investment in money and time to blogging about their businesses? By increasing the likelihood of getting found, they might land some sales they weren't expecting.
Posted Saturday, November 15, 2008 by
Kaila Woodside
I have spent my first year of my business career as a Business Development Manager for Compendium Blogware. This experience has allowed me to work with business and help them understand the value of business blogging and blogging for SEO.
However, two weeks ago I moved to the "other side" of my software as a service company and I am now the Director of Client Success.
Thus far it has been fantastic. I am now working with the clients I had originally brought on to the Compendium platform and overseeing their success. I have a GREAT team: Sarah Sedberry, Jess Wehner and Kristen Raves. AND a pretty cool partner in crime: Doug Karr
I am very excited for this new opportunity and couldn't be happier to do this within a company I care so very much about.
However, two weeks ago I moved to the "other side" of my software as a service company and I am now the Director of Client Success.
Thus far it has been fantastic. I am now working with the clients I had originally brought on to the Compendium platform and overseeing their success. I have a GREAT team: Sarah Sedberry, Jess Wehner and Kristen Raves. AND a pretty cool partner in crime: Doug Karr
I am very excited for this new opportunity and couldn't be happier to do this within a company I care so very much about.
Posted Saturday, November 15, 2008 by
Brian McKay
Earning customers through blogging is an easy decision. The challenge is putting your marketing budget to the test, and calling out all of the media outlets you've invested in to grow your business. Marketing channels for your business should be held to full circle accountability.
Blogging for SEO provides you a channel that can be held fully accountable for it's results. If you choose the right partner for your business blogging, winning customers through search engines can be realized in weeks.
Let's just focus on average customer acquisition cost for your business. Trade shows, networking, print, television, sponsorships, and outdoors advertising get pricey fast. Blogging is a tool that can drive absolute unique traffic through search engines day after day.
As an interactive marketing professional a big mistake small market businesses make is playing a round robin with their marketing dollars, and not systematizing their approach. It is much more simple now than it ever has been to keep your marketing expenses down, and realize much more buying power with your marketing dollar. Tracking is a must, and when you choose a partner for you business blogging platform this should be provided to you in your terms and measured against your average customer acquisition cost.
The beauty of blogging is the full circle accountability for every dollar you spend, not to mention the power it gives you in winning search. If you haven't done so yet, find out your average cost per customer acquired and then let's talk about how Blogging can match or beat any other channel you have set up.
Blogging for SEO provides you a channel that can be held fully accountable for it's results. If you choose the right partner for your business blogging, winning customers through search engines can be realized in weeks.
Let's just focus on average customer acquisition cost for your business. Trade shows, networking, print, television, sponsorships, and outdoors advertising get pricey fast. Blogging is a tool that can drive absolute unique traffic through search engines day after day.
As an interactive marketing professional a big mistake small market businesses make is playing a round robin with their marketing dollars, and not systematizing their approach. It is much more simple now than it ever has been to keep your marketing expenses down, and realize much more buying power with your marketing dollar. Tracking is a must, and when you choose a partner for you business blogging platform this should be provided to you in your terms and measured against your average customer acquisition cost.
The beauty of blogging is the full circle accountability for every dollar you spend, not to mention the power it gives you in winning search. If you haven't done so yet, find out your average cost per customer acquired and then let's talk about how Blogging can match or beat any other channel you have set up.
Posted Saturday, November 15, 2008 by
Krystal Featherston
After reading a blog post written by Guy Kawasaki called "How to Change People's Attitude," really got me thinking ..... we really can change peoples attitudes!!!
The article started out by describing a study that was done in Hawaii about a room service attendant who repeatedly confirmed hotel guest’s dinner order by asking them several times whether they were sure or what they ordered and by the need they were questioning whether or not they really wanted what they has previously ordered. Because the attendant questioned their first choice it made them second guess themselves.
This got me to really think about it … Can we really change someone’s mind? Can we apply this to writing a blog post. I believe we can – when you’re writing your business blog you could repeated ask your readers a question – forcing them to think about that answer – then in turn force them to think about their opinion.
There’s no right or wrong way to write a post so try to change someone’s opinion and see if you agree with this article. There were several other studies talked about in this post, but you’ll have to read it yourself and form your own opinion – or do you agree with ME!!
Challenge: When writing your next corporate blog post see if you can change someone’s attitude!! Can you do it?
The article started out by describing a study that was done in Hawaii about a room service attendant who repeatedly confirmed hotel guest’s dinner order by asking them several times whether they were sure or what they ordered and by the need they were questioning whether or not they really wanted what they has previously ordered. Because the attendant questioned their first choice it made them second guess themselves.
This got me to really think about it … Can we really change someone’s mind? Can we apply this to writing a blog post. I believe we can – when you’re writing your business blog you could repeated ask your readers a question – forcing them to think about that answer – then in turn force them to think about their opinion.
There’s no right or wrong way to write a post so try to change someone’s opinion and see if you agree with this article. There were several other studies talked about in this post, but you’ll have to read it yourself and form your own opinion – or do you agree with ME!!
Challenge: When writing your next corporate blog post see if you can change someone’s attitude!! Can you do it?
Posted Saturday, November 15, 2008 by
Jess Wehner
Ok, so you are blogging for business, creating lots of content, ranking high in the search engines and sending lots of people to your website- so you're set and can crown yourself Master of Maketing, right? Not so fast...As a marketer I'm guessing that your ultimate goal is not getting all your keywords to rank or getting lots of traffic, your goal is CONVERSIONS, CONVERSIONS, CONVERSIONS (or at least lead generation). To keep your job and your blogging program, you need to show your boss the money!! Right?
That's where an awesome call to action comes in to play. If you have tons of people visiting your website, make sure you are giving them an opportunity to do something once they are there! A customer should never have to wonder what the next steps are or how they can get more information. You should be "calling" (no pun intended) out to them, screaming for them to take the next step!
Stuck on what your call to action should be? I found a great website today with 36 different ideas for CTAs- click here to check it out. They are a little more specific, but will help point you in the right direction. Whether it's inviting them to subscribe to a newsletter, watch a webinar, or request more information- your CTA is the most important part of your website.
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
Brian McKay
Greg Jarboe at SearchEngineWatch.com posted a great article on the influential nature of Blog content. The quote below is one I'd like to comment on as it pertains to earning customers through Blogging:
Now, blogs certainly aren’t considered the “newbies” of the social media scene – “granddaddies” is probably a more appropriate term. But that gives them an advantage from a marketing perspective – the medium has matured and moved from early adopter phase to the mainstream.
Greg makes a salient point here. With our economy in dire straits according to the pop media, small market businesses are looking backwards oftentimes to find a relaible lead generation source to drive new business. This yearning for the status quo is the perfect opportunity to capture market share.
Think about this, you know your competitors game plan in this market. Pull back on all marketing expenditures and cut budgets. Focus all spending on methods that last drove in some leads. With a sound business blogging strategy you can be positioning your company to win search now.
Blogging is viable in the mainstream market, and should not be relegated to only the early adopters. Great article Greg. You can read the entire article at:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/081114-124722
Now, blogs certainly aren’t considered the “newbies” of the social media scene – “granddaddies” is probably a more appropriate term. But that gives them an advantage from a marketing perspective – the medium has matured and moved from early adopter phase to the mainstream.
Greg makes a salient point here. With our economy in dire straits according to the pop media, small market businesses are looking backwards oftentimes to find a relaible lead generation source to drive new business. This yearning for the status quo is the perfect opportunity to capture market share.
Think about this, you know your competitors game plan in this market. Pull back on all marketing expenditures and cut budgets. Focus all spending on methods that last drove in some leads. With a sound business blogging strategy you can be positioning your company to win search now.
Blogging is viable in the mainstream market, and should not be relegated to only the early adopters. Great article Greg. You can read the entire article at:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/081114-124722
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
mikey mioduski
A few years back I Netflixed an excellent documentary called Monumental, directed by Kelly Duane. It tells the brave tale of David Brower, who spent his life fighting to preserve America's wilds for future generations.
What I really took away from this was how Brower crossed paths with another nature-loving dude by the name of Ansel Adams while out in Yosemite. The two hit it off.
To borrow from the documentary's synopsis:
A close friendship with photographer Ansel Adams helped Brower solidify his mission, making the US government's rampant development of natural lands the focus of his fight. As he stepped into the role of executive director of John Muir's pioneering Sierra Club in 1952, Brower became a true political force on behalf of America's natural treasures.
What happened is this: Brower was able to work with Adams, the artistic genious who was able to give as much justice as one possibly can to the Parks without actually being there. This brought a vision of the American wild to the eyes of a public that could not fathom such beauty... right there in their won backyard. When you look at a picture like the infamous Snake River Teton shot, it is hard not to want to fight for and visit the parks.
This was what really leveraged Brower and the Sierra Club get their message across to a larger American public.
Today we are able to reach so many more people through new media. I truly think the parks-- any parks-- could benefit from business blogging. Obviously I might be biased, working for a blogging software company, but using blogs to get a message to a broader spectrum affordably facilitates a venue to tell your story and raise interst as Brower and Adams so tactfully did decades ago.
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
Megan Glover
Really interesting post today on the SEW Blog: Blog Content Influences Consumer Buying Behavior
Looks like a preamble to an upcoming Webinar; nonetheless there's some good market research to build the case for business blogging within your organization.
I particularly found this point interesting:
Blogs sway more purchases among readers than social networks: More frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites.
This point brought up more questions than answers for me - I don't claim to be a social network expert.. I'd sure like to get better at merging business and social network marketing; however, how important is it to your bottom line?
I know some companies devote a singe individual to managing their social networking presence- is the who strategy something we do to show face or does it really close business? Thoughts?
Looks like a preamble to an upcoming Webinar; nonetheless there's some good market research to build the case for business blogging within your organization.
I particularly found this point interesting:
Blogs sway more purchases among readers than social networks: More frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites.
This point brought up more questions than answers for me - I don't claim to be a social network expert.. I'd sure like to get better at merging business and social network marketing; however, how important is it to your bottom line?
I know some companies devote a singe individual to managing their social networking presence- is the who strategy something we do to show face or does it really close business? Thoughts?
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
Law Firms should be participating in business blogging because as consultants Lawyers have a need to build credibility. Blogs help tell stories and at the end of the day, potential clients convert based on how much the lawyers experience matches up to my specific problem. A typical lawyer website is all about the lawyer...it's basically just another form of lawyer advertising that does't look or act any different than the Law Firm down the street.
But by incorporateing blogging best practices and actually telling stories about cases and clients over time, two great things happen. First you rank highly in the search engines on various topics...that SEO benefit helps with attracting new clients and lowers the average customer acquisition cost. People do Attorney Search almost anytie they have a problem...this is why Attorney Marketing through blogs is such a critical tactic.
Blogs also convert. One Attorney we work with has a dedicated phone number on his blogs. This lawyer spent 5 months tracking that number compared to his Yellow Page Advertising...and at the end of that five months he dropped the Yellow Pages.
Corporate Blogging works for Law Firms.
But by incorporateing blogging best practices and actually telling stories about cases and clients over time, two great things happen. First you rank highly in the search engines on various topics...that SEO benefit helps with attracting new clients and lowers the average customer acquisition cost. People do Attorney Search almost anytie they have a problem...this is why Attorney Marketing through blogs is such a critical tactic.
Blogs also convert. One Attorney we work with has a dedicated phone number on his blogs. This lawyer spent 5 months tracking that number compared to his Yellow Page Advertising...and at the end of that five months he dropped the Yellow Pages.
Corporate Blogging works for Law Firms.
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
Ali Sales
If you are thinking about starting a corporate blogging program (or if you are already doing a business blogging program), here are 3 things you should be paying attention to:
1. Can you get people to your company blogs?
Well, duh. Of course that's important. Without people showing up, how will you get anyone to take the next step?
There are a couple key things to pay attention to here:
2. Can you keep people on your business blogs?
You'll have a really good idea by looking at these two metrics:
3. Can you move visitors onto the next step?
It's great to have people reading your blog -- but unless you're a publisher, you don't make any money based on people spending 60 minutes reading about you and your company. That's why you want to move online blog visitors onto the next step.
The metrics that will tell you whether or not you succeed are simple:
1. Can you get people to your company blogs?
Well, duh. Of course that's important. Without people showing up, how will you get anyone to take the next step?
There are a couple key things to pay attention to here:
- Search engine rankings (the higher the better typically)
- Number of unique visitors (and where are they coming from? Any basic analytics breakdown should show you).
2. Can you keep people on your business blogs?
You'll have a really good idea by looking at these two metrics:
- Average read time
- Average bounce rate
3. Can you move visitors onto the next step?
It's great to have people reading your blog -- but unless you're a publisher, you don't make any money based on people spending 60 minutes reading about you and your company. That's why you want to move online blog visitors onto the next step.
The metrics that will tell you whether or not you succeed are simple:
- Clicks on the CTA
- Leads generated from the blogs!
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
Megan Glover
Check out Seth Godin's blog post today: The number one secret of the great blogs.
The key takeaway is this: once you realize that your job is to find and connect and lead a tribe, to give them something to talk about and a place to go, it's a lot easier to write a blog that works.
For business bloggers it's so important that your blog connect with what your readers are searching for. Which directly relates to Seth's point about connection.As a business blogger you need to be 100% focused on providing relevant, real time information your prospects are searching for.
It's important to keep your "tribe" in mind while blogging. Who are these people you're hoping to lead and what information will you give them to talk about?
The key takeaway is this: once you realize that your job is to find and connect and lead a tribe, to give them something to talk about and a place to go, it's a lot easier to write a blog that works.
For business bloggers it's so important that your blog connect with what your readers are searching for. Which directly relates to Seth's point about connection.As a business blogger you need to be 100% focused on providing relevant, real time information your prospects are searching for.
It's important to keep your "tribe" in mind while blogging. Who are these people you're hoping to lead and what information will you give them to talk about?
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
Kaila Woodside
After graduating from college with a finance degree - I was always quite hesitant to get a 'real job' - because I thought I would be "stuck" sitting at a desk all day long and would not have time to enjoy the things that I liked best. However, working for a software as a service company - especially one with young energetic professionals - allows for a more relaxed atmosphere. As our clients are calling our Success Management Team to talk about blog as a business and corporate blogging - Willow, my fun loving pup, barks out her tips in the background.
Okay - not all of that is true.... she doesn't actually bark out blogging best practices but she is the new Client Success Team mascot and brings a new level of joy to our workplace.
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
Kristen Raves
Doug Karr has helped me come up with a great explanation of keywords and compending. A fantastic way to explain Compendium Blogware, what we do,and how we can help you win search engine optimization. Keyword focus isn't simply driven by content itself, it's also driven by a number of other factors including URL construction, backlinks, titles, keyword density on related pages, positioning of the html in the page, and even formatting of the text itself. Our compended blogs concentrate keyword densities of like terms (your keywords and synonymous terms) and organize the posts on the compended page for maximum search engine attention.
If you begin to focus specific keywords in your posts, you WILL see some lift in those results; however, without the optimization that is provided by a compended blog, you may find it difficult to place in those top 4 search results depending upon how competitive the keyword is. This is what's so great about blogging in general - you can really attain a lot of search engine traffic - even on keywords you've not optimized for. However, when you do optimize, you'll definitely garner more attention. As well, you'll gain traffic and attention on peripheral search phrases that are relevant to your business.
75% of corporate blogs fail - usually because of the lack of relevant traffic (or little traffic altogether) that their blog attains. That said, don't hesitate to utilize that strategy if you have additional keywords that you wish to attain. When you really want to hit the homerun and 'own' the keyword or phrase, nothing will work better than a compended blog, though.
If you begin to focus specific keywords in your posts, you WILL see some lift in those results; however, without the optimization that is provided by a compended blog, you may find it difficult to place in those top 4 search results depending upon how competitive the keyword is. This is what's so great about blogging in general - you can really attain a lot of search engine traffic - even on keywords you've not optimized for. However, when you do optimize, you'll definitely garner more attention. As well, you'll gain traffic and attention on peripheral search phrases that are relevant to your business.
75% of corporate blogs fail - usually because of the lack of relevant traffic (or little traffic altogether) that their blog attains. That said, don't hesitate to utilize that strategy if you have additional keywords that you wish to attain. When you really want to hit the homerun and 'own' the keyword or phrase, nothing will work better than a compended blog, though.
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