Community Blog Software

Blogging Indiana!

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

This weekend marks a great event in downtown Indianapolis, and no I'm not talking about Gen-Con. I'm referring to Blog Indiana 2008!

Blog Indiana is a 2-day blogging and social media conference, hosted at IUPUI, that aims to promote education, innovation and collaboration among Indiana’s fast-growing blogging community. There will be several keynote speakers at the conference, including our very own Chris Baggott.

This blog conference for both experienced and new bloggers alike. Sessions will include topics such as blogging for beginners, using blogs in your business, monetizing your blog, political blogging and more advanced topics. So if you are a blogger looking to get started, looking to add a corporate blog, or wanting to capitalize on the success you're already having with the blog for your business - this is a conference you should attend.

Compendium Blogware will also have a booth at the conference, so feel free to stop by and say hello to two of our Business Development Managers, Jenni Edwards and Eric Romer. They will be happy to help answer any questions you may have about blogging for your business.

Happy Blogging!

Blog Indiana 2008

MSNBC talks about Corporate blogging

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Eric Romer

I saw this video over on Debbie Weil's blog, and it apparently aired a couple weeks back on MSNBC. They do a pretty good job highlighting the value of a "blogger-in-chief".

I like that Bill Marriot handwrites his blog posts -- there's something nostalgic about that in a technology-driven world. But at the same time, that can be limiting. Relying on an extremely busy CEO, and someone to transcribe his notes, is a bit tedious.

Free up the employees to create content. They're communicating everyday with potential customers on phone and email, why not a blog?

Real World ROI Webinar

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

I am excited to announce that my client Visit Tampa Bay is a highlight in the webinar today. They have been an exemplary client of ours and we are pleased to "show them off" Congratulations Jeremy and the rest of the bloggers!

This webinar will cover what we call "Real World ROI". Basically this means that we are showing you how to cover the costs of the blog and then some. The "and them some" can mean more visits to your website, the visitors buying your products or services, or even starting your own community within the blog.

You can still sign up for the webinar by clicking here. It is not too late! Sign up now.

Corporate blogging is like gardening

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Eric Romer

Or traveling to Florida for vacation.

Or throwing a party.

Or building a house.

OK, so my point is, you can fill in just about any analogy and it would work. The desired outcome is an award-winning garden, or arriving in Florida, or having a fun party everyone talks about, or seeing the house in its final stages. How you get there is by using the proper tools or tactics.

This is mostly inspired from reading a great post by Shel Holtz, co-author of "Blogging For Business", along with other communication-focused books. (Not to be confused with Shel Israel, co-author of "Naked Conversations", another book on corporate blogging)

Gardening Tools
I've talked about the issue of time in several posts on this blog, and you can count this as another. My biggest issue with that argument related to business blogs is that it's an excuse, not a valid reason.

If all of the sudden, there was a revolutionary new tool that could improve the way I garden, I'd probably want to know about it. I would never say "I have no time to use that tool." Take the picture above. There are a lot of different tools that a gardener can use to achieve his/her end goal - to make it the most healthy, attractive garden around. (if that's not the goal gardeners, speak up) The end game is the same, but the tools are up to each individual gardener.

It's the same thing with business. Any business has to communicate with it's shareholders, employees, existing customers, and most importantly potential customers. To drive business, you need leads. You need to introduce your business to a qualified prospect, build trust, prove value and convert them into a happy customer.

Blogging is just a tool. A simple, easy tool that scales content and allows you to communicate more effectively.

Shel writes:
Blogging is a new communication channel. Before blogs became widely available and accepted, executives made do with the channels available to them: one-on-one phone calls, conference calls, speeches, road shows, letters, email and so on. I have heard from a number of CEOs that blogs are more effective than any of these tools for a variety of communications. Therefore, they have replaced the use of such channels with blogging. In aggregate, though, they’re spending just as much time fulfilling their role as the company’s chief communicator.
And he's just highlighting an executive's reason to blog. We at Compendium preach to allow employees, not just C-level exec's, to blog for your business. As the Edelman Trust Barometer shows us, an employee blog is "five times more credible than a CEO blog." Shel also has some good tips on time management, group blogs and ROI. Read the rest of his post HERE.

Finding Time to Blog

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Jim Hyslop

So I know that I have already blogged about this issue but it seems to come up a lot. In fact I just read a post by Shel Holtz where he also addresses the issue that I hear all the time, "my staff is already maxed...we just don't have time to blog" and it got me thinking again.

The truth is by saying you don't have time to blog you are really saying I don't have time to communicate. I know I would never hear the same answer in regard to email or phone calls. The idea of not communicating by phone would be unheard of! We need to re-tune our minds to look at the blog in this exact way....as another form of corporate communication with our clients and business prospects on a human level. The beauty of the blog is now our method of communication is serving multiple purposes. Engaging our prospects, optimizing your company in the search rankings, and turning visitors into customers by your ability to do both of the first two things. But to do so you need the tools that allow you to do this.You need to incorporate methods of advanced business blogging.

The real time issue with managing a corporate blog does not come from communicating...it comes from managing the blog for ROI. There is a lot of lifting that happens to leverage that communication for your maximum benefit. At the end of the day if your company uses the right blogging tools to do this for you, you will inevitably secure the many benefits of blogging you deserve while at the same time never allowing your clients and potential customers to rank below the number one spot on your lists of priorities.

Driving business comes from the ability to acquire new customers by communicating to them you have exactly what they need. So by saying you don't have time to blog you are really saying I don't have time to obtain new forms of revenue. From a business perspective that just doesn't make sense. Blog for SEO. Blog for engagement. Blog for ROI!!!!

Business growth = Good Stuff..........Happy Blogging!

Read Travel JCT's Blog!

Posted Thursday, August 7, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

Click here to purchase the book

Compendium Blogware welcomes Smith Weaver Smith to the world of blogging! They are a consulting firm that helps businesses land deals in record times.

The head of the organization, Barbara Weaver Smith, is an amazing keynote speaker who focuses on the topic of "Whale Hunting" or how to land big business deals. Her passion is in the area of small business growth, business women, and women owned businesses.

Whale Hunting Women is a network of women who do big deals in business and community, women who want to learn, and men who support these efforts. To read her blog click here, you will not be disappointed.

BBC GOES APE...

Posted Tuesday, August 5, 2008 by mikey mioduski

BBC teams up with the Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett for a pretty sweet rendition of an Ancient Chinese folk tale, "Journey to the West." If you weren't stoked about the upcoming games, and if you can get down on some tasty beats and stunning visuals, this might just get you in the mood.

To me this shows that creativity doesn't need to be confined to a 30 second tv spot. This particular video has only been up on YouTube for a little over one week and has 355,000 something views. Like Chris Baggott commented on Greenfield Liquor's approach to blogging for business, video can be a powerful and fun approach to communicating your message.

Compelling content (like a monkey flying on a cloud and kicking ass all the way to Beijing) will get mad views. This voracious viewage will stir up some crazy conversions once the traffic floods into the target homesite from the place where the killer content is held (ie YouTube or your better yet, your very own Compended blog). These crazy conversions turn into radical return on investment. Shizzam.

BBC can track the real return on their ill investment just by tracking the number of views on YouTube and the traffic flooding in to their site thanks to their mind-blowing content.

CONTENT DRIVES TRAFFIC. Know this.

Get your games on!

Boating... and business blogs

Posted Monday, August 4, 2008 by Eric Romer

I had a great weekend at a friend's lake house, which consisted mostly of relaxing, boating and eating. However, I managed to sneak in some talk about business blogging as well.

One of my biggest struggles with being on the cutting edge of a new blog software is how to break it down to layman's terms. In any form of communication, you have to speak the language of your audience. If I'm talking to a business that is well-versed in SEO and Paid Search Advertising, my discussion will be more granular and technical. However, some people don't want to know how the engine works, they just want the car to run.

Our host for the weekend, Harry, was intrigued by Compendium's solutions for business, but needed a quick explanation. OK... so what's the best way for me to describe what we do, cocktail in hand on the boat, so it's relevant to Harry? I got it... his hip replacement surgery next week.

Me: So, before your surgery, did you do any research?
Harry: Well, yeah, of course.
Me: Did you use a search engine?
Harry: Like Google? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did.
Me: Well, what we do is provide software to businesses, and in this case it would be a doctor/surgeon/health care provider, to tell relevant stories about hip surgery and recovery. So, when you, the potential patient, goes to do research, you find a human being giving you up-to-date, relevant information. It looks similar to a website, but with more of a conversational, personal communication.
Harry: Sounds like it makes sense...
Eric: (pulls out iphone) Here, let me show you...

Then I went on to do a Google search of a Compendium client. If you want to hear how this process works from one of our clients, Tampa Bay Convention & Visitor's Association, click HERE to sign up for the Webinar Thursday, Aug. 14th.

Full Disclosure on Blogs

Posted Sunday, August 3, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

In a recent ruling, the SEC will recognize corporate blogs as public disclosure. IR Web Reports states that, "...companies can rely on their websites and blogs to meet the public disclosure requirements under Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), according to new guidance unanimously approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission today."

This means that more companies will be utilizing public forums such as blogs to relay their most critical company facts and issues to the public. Long gone are press releases, welcome to the new age. From now on organizations will be communicating by using blogging platforms such as Compendium Blogware.

Not only does online distribution meet these disclosures, the art of search engine optimized press releases have the unique ability to appear in search engines tied to the key words your blogging about. This is where Compendium can offer businesses the ability to distribute news with added SEO functionality. When paired with a well-written, SEO optimized press releases, blogs can more than satisfy disclosure, they can inform your customers, investors, and clients on exactly where your company stands.

Additionally, people will be utilizing their social networking sites such as Facebook and LInked In to share these blogs with their social groups. Not only do these sites socialize content and link conversations across the web, they also help bloggers and other journalists write more effective and media rich content.

The Best $0.87 You Can Spend on a Business Blogging and Internet Marketing Book

Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by jeff lefevere

Some people like to know what time it is. Others want to know how the watch works.

As a nation of learners, oftentimes, we want to understand context, the situation around the situation. Besides a mellifluous voice, this is probably one of the reasons that we enjoy radio personality Paul Harvey so much; he helps us understand the “Rest of the Story” in regards to a situation concerning business or humanity.

This story/back-story element also is a reason why blogging is such a rich tool for the marketer. In addition to being “human” with your prospect you have a tremendous opportunity to present context, which aids sales.

If you’re interested in picking up a book that will give you incredible context and “The Rest of the Story” to blogging and social media, the best $.87 you can spend is a series of 95 theses written in 1999 and posted on the Internet before being born in book form in 2000. The Seminal book, “The Cluetrain Manifesto” is as good of a primer as any that I can think of to help somebody make sense of some of the large, seismic dynamics that are taking place in the Internet space, a space you are presumably participating in or considering by developing, executing and continuing to enhance your blogging for business program. The preface of the book says:

The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses organised and put forward as a manifesto, or call to action, for all businesses operating within what is suggested to be a newly-connected marketplace. The ideas put forward within the manifesto aim to examine the impact of the Internet on both markets (consumers) and organisations. In addition, as both consumers and organisations are able to utilise the Internet and Intranets to establish a previously unavailable level of communication both within and between these two groups, the manifesto suggests that the changes that will be required from organisations as they respond to the new marketplace environment.

Some of the “theses” of the book are downright Nostradamus-like. When the book first came out, it was heralded and then dismissed as a part of the collateral damage that occurred with the downturn in the economy. Now, these simple maxims, some eight years later, couldn’t be more on target, correct and downright visionary, especially since they were released in the pre-blog era. A couple of examples:

* The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

* Companies that don’t realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity.

* Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.

Go to Amazon.com, search for “Cluetrain Manifesto” and buy the book used for under a buck. For $0.87 you can’t even buy a cup of coffee and I guarantee this book will have a more lasting impact than a Venti with cream and four sugars.

Video and Business Blogging: Fun and Profitable

Posted Thursday, July 31, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Big Corporatations try and make things so complicated. I always say that innovation starts at the bottom...the so called Minor Leagues. Think sports marketing, everything cool in sports marketing (bat night, concerts, fireworks...even frisbee dogs) started in Minor League Baseball.

This is especially true in business blogging. With the advent of Affordable blogging software, some of our best bloggers turn out to be coming not from the ivory towers of the fortune 500, but from the SMB's. Forget Jonathan Schwartz or Robert Scoble...

If you want to emulate great Blogging Best Practices, pay attention to Lizan Brand.

Lizan is focused on Blogging for Search. She highlights high value and unusual products using all the best SEO tactics including the right keywords, geo targeting and blended search favorites like video. Why?

So when someone is looking for a specific product or a drink recipe in Greenfield or any of the surrounding communities like the big city of Indianapolis, she's the number one choice.

As a result, she has been featured in the Indianapolis paper which is over 20 miles from her store. This week she was featured in DMNews (trust me, she doesn't consider herself a direct marketer) and the things that she blogs about, she is now buying by the case. This is the best thing about Business Blogging, telling a great story about things that move your business forward.

Sure Greenfield Liquors sells 6 packs of cold Miller Lite, but her profits come from high end wine and Liquor. Blogging on these topics rings the cash register.

Watch this video and see if you don't end up thirsting for a Root Beer Cocktail :-)

What's a Business Blog Supposed To Accomplish?

Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by Chris Baggott

There was some feedback from my interview on Blog Squad Radio last week about the Compendium Approach to Business Blogging was too Corporate.

I posted this reply:

I wanted to thank you both for a great session last week. Your questions were insightful and I really appreciate your open-mindedness for some of these new concepts.

A successful relationship requires direct communication. To get the right to build a relationship with a customer or prospect you have to first be found, second build credibility that a relationship with you will add value to the prospect or customer.

Blogging is spectacular for this stage of the relationship. From that point however 99% of the time that relationship is going to evolve to leverage some other medium...which might include face-to-face, email, telephone or even paper based things like catalogs.

You guys are a perfect case to show that a successful blogging program shouldn't be measured by the number of comments...but from the amount of traffic and conversions.Thanks again,

Chris Baggott, CEO
Compendium Blogware

Advanced Business Blogging Strategy, requires that your employee and constituent content should be mostly about your business. Blog about your solutions, your customers, your aspirations as it relates to your products & services. This is what people are searching for...great blog information that helps them and builds trust

Blogging and the Company Trip

Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by Abby Rivera

Rafting in Ohiopyle

I was on the phone yesterday with a client, we were discussing content for their blog posts. Specifically, what is appropriate to talk about on your blog? I mentioned that while it is important to talk specifically about the topics we will be focusing on with our blog package(i.e. Keywords), it is very import to also relate to your readers. Let your readers know that you are a real person. Talk about what you are doing, different things that are going on within your organization, or the community in general.

One of the best examples of this, is Chris Baggott's Blog. He is always talking about both Compendium and what is going on in his world - an then ultimately pulling the two of these together. I am sure some of you have read Chris's recent blog post about our company trip to Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania or checked out Kaila's pictures on Flicker and seen this all work together.

In this fashion, here is my take on the weekend...
Absolutely amazingly ridiculous!!! Just some of the words I used to describe it in a text to my sister. We had a great weekend together as a team. For some of us, the weekend pushed us to the limits, others of us were olds pros, but not matter who we were, we had a blast!

We had the opportunity meet some of our clients! I also had an opportunity to try out one of our clients products, Gla Gla Shoes. (I'll be writing again very soon with my opinion about how great these shoes are!). Thank you Chris and Kaila for showing us around Ohiopyle. Check back a little later for some more fun stories:-)

Best Practices Blogging Q&A - Comments

Posted Monday, July 28, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

Question: Comments – what should I do about them? Should I be accepting all comments or ignoring all comments? Is there a happy middle ground?

Answer: The truth is that having comments on your blog is truly up to the organization that owns the blog however there are several guidelines you should know about. First of all a blog with no comments at all will look a little suspect to people who understand blogs. It immediately throws up a red flag to the reader that says you’re not interested in two way communication. Even if you’re not going to accept comments you should still have the comment link. By having the link and functionality in place people still have the ability to reach out to you. When someone comments they leave their email address so you will have a way to respond back to them. Finally you can receive some value from an SEO perspective by having comments.

Remember you are in control of approving the comments. If an inappropriate comment is left make sure that you address the comment via email with the individual who left the comment. The most important part to remember is that comments are used for two way communication.

Two ears, one mouth

Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2008 by Eric Romer

Seth Godin has a great blog.. despite my disagreeing with his "Limits of Meta" post from last week. He's published various books on marketing, and has an amazing knack for simplifying concepts.

His recent post titled "Are they ready to listen?" talks about the concept that most marketers forget:"is my audience ready to listen to what I'm telling them?"

I really like this concept, and totally agree that it's vital to a business's communication with potential customers.

This can be related to all facets of life. For example, I went to a concert on a Sunday night in Indianapolis recently. The bands were all talented, and the promoter worked hard to flyer the city and get the word out. But, people don't want to go out on a Sunday night... regardless of how good the act is.

The same thing applies to business, as Seth points out: "The tragic mistake of demographics and media planning is that they overlook the single most important issue: is the person you're talking to ready to listen?"

Guess what?? The web has changed marketing. Search engines give you (a company) the power to LISTEN, instead of shout at prospects with traditional forms of media... hoping they are ready to hear you. Business blogs allow you to be found easier in Google, engage readers with relevant, conversational content, and convert them. Simple as that.

Easy blogging software allows this process to happen with little effort. Start creating content today, and spread those two ears out over the internet. Now, you can sit back and listen... When people WANT you to talk to them, you'll be there.

To see this in action, Google "blogging solution", and see what the top 1 or 2 result (out of 11 million) is in the organic results.

Google's Earnings Are Down

Posted Sunday, July 20, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

Late last week Google announced its quarterly earnings with disappointing results; only the fourth time they have ever missed Wall Street's expectations. So what's behind this? Well, first of all it's important to note that even though Google didn't meet Wall Street's expectations; they still rose from Net Income in Q2 of 2007 of $925B to Net Income of $1.25B this past quarter.

What does this mean to the search community? Internet and technology companies are historically volatile, but Google is the mother ship and rarely misses the mark. So a couple of the reasons why Net Income and some revenue numbers were off the mark this past quarter:

Acquisition of DoubleClick
Increased costs associated with hedging foreign currencies (one of the most interesting things about corporate finance in a multinational company --- how much a currency fluctuation can change the bottom line)

Net-net, Google is still just as dominating as it was prior to this announcement in my eyes. Google is who we, as a business blogging platform focused on winning organic search, will continue to benchmark against and use as a primary search engine of measuring clients success because with over 60% of the US market share it really is the elephant in the room when it comes to online acquisition --- so, being Google's friend and working in good faith to structure content in the best way for the user experience is exactly what we are focused in doing here at Compendium.

Are Two Blogging Strategies Appropriate?

Posted Friday, July 18, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

Is there a need for two different blogging strategies and can they work in harmony? (hence the cheesy ying yang symbol)

Let's take an example from one of our prospects here at Compendium --- they just began utilizing a paid social networking platform. Basically a rich social media component that companies can integrate into their website (I am not expert in this specific arena, but Ning is a free social platform that can also be used --- not sure the differences, but we have a pretty active Ning Network here in Indiana). I don't know if this can really be replicated by a company as this has been pretty viral with little advertising...)

Anyways, the paid social networking platform that our prospect was speaking about contains a blogging component, so a user could have their profile, make friends, watch viral videos and blog (what we like to call "and we do that blogging thing too"). Great, but is this corporate blogging or community blogging? Who are these people? Are we organizing the content in the best way to attract new people to our site? Probably not. This is great community building, social media, whatever you want to say. I was impressed with the platform as I looked around; BUT...it's not the end all. It doesn't acquire customers. How do new users begin find the social network? The world isn't as viral as we think...you have to plant enough seeds (i.e. - winning search) that enough influencers across the country or world find your cool, new social network for even a chance at getting people to come and stick around. So are you blogging for community? Great! How about thinking of blogging in a new way --- for acquisition, search and to make more money.

Blog Indiana Conference - Aug. 16 & 17

Posted Thursday, July 17, 2008 by Eric Romer

It's summer, which means wedding season. And a lot of my friends are getting married. In these past few weeks, I've accepted that I'm definitely the guy who sends a gift in the mail after the date of the wedding.

Come to think of it, I have also purchased more belated birthday cards than regular ones. But... in either scenario, the thought is still there, just delivered a few days late.

So, hopefully you will forgive me for being a day late on "Blog Post Day". As a clever way to promote the upcoming conference on blogging solutions and social media, Blog Indiana asked sponsors, participants and interested bloggers to post about the conference exactly 30 days out from Indiana's first blogging conference....

Well... here's your reminder 29 days out!

This will be an amazing event. Obviously, we at Compendium are advocates of corporate blogs and showing how blogs can change your business. But it's really encouraging to see the IU School of Informatics showcase this progressive community across all of Indiana.

Here's the basics on the conference, with links to the Blog Indiana website for more information. Make sure you don't miss our CEO, Chris Baggott, lead the session on Organizational Blogging.

Who Should Attend?
Students, hobbyists and professionals are encouraged to attend to network and learn. Experience with blogging or social media are not requirements to participate; anyone with an interest in technology and new media is welcome to attend.

Attendees
Seating is limited to 200 attendees.

Location
The IUPUI Campus Center on the IUPUI Campus in Indianapolis, IN

Cost
$49 for both days -- Register Today!

30 days away!

Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

Local bloggers from across Indiana will gather at the IUPUI Campus Center on August 16-17th, 2008, for Blog Indiana 2008, a 2-day blogging and social media conference that aims to promote education, innovation and collaboration among Indiana’s fast-growing blogging community.

Topics to be covered include Corporate Blogging 101, Writing for Blogs, Blog Etiquette, Legal Issues, Building Blog Readership, and many more.

For more information click here.

Why You're Wrong If You Think About Blogging This Way...

Posted Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by Ali Sales

Okay, I'm back to my comments about the Forrester report saying that B2B blogging is on the decline.

In my last post, I tackled one of my primary concerns about the report: The audience surveyed.

Now let's get to the heart of the matter: The message.

As a person with a marketing background, let me say that I think Forrester is a great resource and historically has turned out some pretty great whitepapers, studies, and analysis. But boy, I think they really missed the mark on this one.

My biggest problem with this whitepaper is the core message, which is that marketers should view business blogging as a way to build a community. Whether you are currently thinking about corporate blogging or have already started down the path, just promise me that you will not make this same mistake.

Why do I think that it's a mistake to consider the major goal of blogging to be community? Because it's impossible, intangible, and quite frankly, it's not going to generate business for your organization.

What markets have to understand is that the goals of a blogging program are really no different than the goals of every other marketing effort that we put money into: generate new business opportunities, and make money.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to quote Jerry Maguire here: "Show me the money."

Back tomorrow with more thoughts.

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