If You Aren't Transparent, You Don't Have Clarity about Corporate Blogging
Posted Thursday, January 8, 2009 by PJ Hinton

Mark Hannah has a great essay on transparency posted over at PBS's MediaShift website. 

Starting off by contrasting the public relations rules of the past with today's reality, Hannah discusses how search engines have created an environment where it's not enough to just watch what you say to the media.  You have to be careful about what you put up on the net because search engines index, and in some cases cache, that information.

Those who are skeptical of your business not only can see what you're saying but also get a picture of what you have said and done in the past.  Those who are dissatisfied with your products and services can post bad reviews on third party websites.

In short, your reputation is controlled by a marketplace where your message competes with that of those who don't agree with your message.

Hannah rightly takes companies to task for treating transparency as just another marketing gimmick to help shape and sell the brand. He says you have to do more than just have transparency.  You need to be transparent.  You do that by changing the way your business operates, ultimately ceasing to do the things that you wouldn't want to be publicized on the web.

Hannah's message is also relevant to your corporate blog.  Blogs will help you get your message out, but if the message doesn't reflect the reality of the way you conduct business, it will do you more harm than good.

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Testing out our new text editor
Posted Wednesday, January 7, 2009 by mikey mioduski

Our team of engineers deserve a lot of credit for their hard work making this new text editor interface more awesome than ever. They are always busy making our business blogging platform more powerful and easier to use.

I am using this post as a test to see if they actually did anything or if they're just saying they did, because nobody really knows what goes on back in that room. They sometimes grow beards and some of them don't wear shoes, so I don't know if I fully trust what they say. But here I go.

I will now attempt to upload a picture.

Hey, that was pretty easy. I really enjoyed doing that.

As I type my thoughts onto this editor, I am noticing how fast it is. I mean, it's a lot faster than I remember.

What about linkage? I will now place a link to a client blog, Christy Sports, because I just noticed they're a client, and I have rented skis and boots and boards from them since I was a tyke.

Wow, that was also really easy.

The work of our Dev team reminds me of a song by postitive rock legend Stan Bush. In his words, "Never surrender, never say die. You got the will to survive."

I will now attempt to embed a Youtube video into our newly enhanced text editor, and if it works, I shall dedicate the video to our Dev Team.

Gosh dang that was easy!

Well after some serious testing, I would like to give props, whatever those are, to the dev team on this one. The new features look really slick, plus they make adding content to our corporate blog much much easier. It's also noticably faster. The awesomeness is beyond words.

I think I just fell back in love with blogging. Thank you dev team for helping me rekindle this flame.

 

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With a New Release, a New Editor
Posted Wednesday, January 7, 2009 by PJ Hinton

The latest release of Compendium Blogware that went live today included a big change that will benefit our content authors -- a new editing environment.

For the past year or so, we've been using the rich text editor supplied by the Yahoo User Interface (YUI) library.  It's pretty powerful, but it had enough weaknesses to motivate us to look for a replacement.

Last fall we looked at a short list of potential candidates and decided that the best match for our needs was an open source editor created by a team of developers led by Frederico Caldeira Knabben.  The editor's name bears the initials of Mr. Knabben -- FCKeditor.

For the most part content authors should find the interface very similar.  Most of the styling features are still there, but some of the toolbar buttons have changed icons.  Our support team has prepared some introductory material to ease the transition for existing customers.

Some of the things that users will find as welcome additions:

  • cleaner HTML created by the editor
  • availability of Undo and Redo operations
  • support for keyboard shortcuts, making the editor feel more like a word processor than an HTML form

Some of the things we have improved with respect to our own editor customizations:

  • oversize images are re-sized on the server upon upload so that they fit within the typical width of a blog column, making page load times much faster
  • a keyword strength meter that doesn't slow down the editor on older systems and browsers

One thing that may jar long some time users is the change in the keyword strength meter itself.  Although the red-to-green gradient remains, no longer does the editor sport a numerical score. 

It was our experience that some users became too fixated on the score getting "stuck" at a certain value.  The meter's algorithm was designed to balance the desire to include keywords against the need to ensure that they weren't used excessively in a post.  When you blog for SEO, you have to keep these opposing goals in mind, lest your content look spammy in the eyes of search engines.

Rather than shooting for a "perfect score", an author should treat the meter as  qualitative barometer of whether he or she is performing this balancing act well on a corporate blog.  Moving from a number to a qualitative measure should help emphasize that.

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Measuring the Impact of Blogging
Posted Wednesday, January 7, 2009 by Ali Sales

I blogged on this topic a few weeks ago and couldn't resist expanding on measurement...

"How do you know whether or not your corporate blogging program is working?"

We get this question all the time. The answer is simple:

Business blogging can be measured the same way that all other marketing is measured.

The top line measurements are: Total traffic, quality of traffic, and clicks on your call-to-action.

Yes, that means that your blog template MUST incorporate something for your visitors to do. They need something to click on. That's no different than how you treat your website and email marketing campaigns (and if you're not treating them this way, now is the time to start).

The bottom line metrics are: Leads and dollars. That could be dollars generated or dollars saved.

My next few posts are going to feature Compendium's own blogging program and I'll also feature metrics/stats from some customers.

I'll also cover the key aspects of success in order to get the top line and bottom line metrics headed in the direction you want.

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Employee Bloggers and Trust: A Ski Vacation Story
Posted Tuesday, January 6, 2009 by Chris Baggott
There has been a lot of talk about the Forrester report highlighting the horrific lack of trust in Corporate blogs.  To me, the key strategy for success outlined by the author Josh Bernoff was the use of employee bloggers....and lot's of them.

Employee Blogging Post
My case today focuses on an experience just two days ago skiing with the family in Colorado.  This was a spontaneous road trip based on access to a free house and the fact that Jimmo's (with beard) son and daughter were out there this winter. (I am actually blogging as we drive home through Kansas)

The weather was great and the snow was perfect.   Sunny and around 28 during the day.  But what made the difference between this being a really good trip and a fantastic experience was Alex.

Employee BloggerAlex here is a friend of Jimmo's son and happens to work as a Host at one of the big resorts.  Talk about your dream job...ski around all day and make sure everyone is safe and most importantly having a good time.   There are maybe hundreds of these folks in Summit County.   And this is just one position.  Vail by itself employees over 3500 people.  

Through our hookup, we were able to ski all day with Alex on his day off.   Alex is smart, he's 24 and a graduate of a good school.  He's doing this because he loves it.   He loves the customers and he loves the resort.  He was able to show us places that were appropriate for the skill variances of our entire group...nooks and cranny's we never would have found on our own...He even took my 8 year old off for a while.  Why?  Because I TRUSTED him.

Vail blogs just like any other Corporation (at least Heavenly does)....self promoting PR.   Why not offer up the opportunity for all 3500 employees to get on multi user blog software and tell their stories?

That's how Corporate Blogging will gain trust...telling real stories from real people who love what they do. 

There are over 10,000,000 monthly searches this time of year that Vail would want to rank highly on.  Post a couple hundred times a week with a variety of relevant stories and watch how many of those start coming their way...

And don't tell me Vail is different than your plumbing supply business or whatever.  Most all company employees are smart, they like their jobs and care about the customer.   Let them help you build trust.

P.S.  While you're at it, Vail has a great database.  They have my email and know exactly when and where I skiied.   What's stopping them from triggering an email to me next week asking me to tell them about my trip....maybe submit a picture or two...wouldn't that be trusted content?  You bet it would.  Vail skiis about 25,000 people a day.   That's 175,000 emails a week that could be triggered telling your customer you appreciate them...Does anyone doubt that Vail would get at least a couple of hundred usable stories a week to fill their blogs?  Imagine the benefit.
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Misadventures in Bad Corporate Blogging
Posted Sunday, January 4, 2009 by PJ Hinton
The financial situation of domestic car manufacturers has generated a lot of headlines the past month or so.  This past week, both GM and Chrysler got bridge loans from the U.S. government.  Both made posts on their corporate blogs to mark the events.
Blogger Jeff Nolan at Enterprise Irregulars points out the stark contrast in the tone of comments on each post and hits the nail right on the head.
... Fastlane is much more respected in the automotive world as a blog about cars on GM’s site, whereas the Chrysler blog is simply a marketing exercise. The distinction is subtle because technically both are marketing tools but the Fastlane blog has substance that is conspicuously lacking in the Chrysler blog.
This brings up an important point: blogs are a long-term investment in the real.  Proponents of good corporate blogging strategy drive home the principle that a blogging initiative will fail if your content is nothing more than a dumping ground for press releases.

Over time, content expressed in a real voice will be viewed as credible by the blog's readership.  If it is nothing but a conveyer belt for marketing messages, you won't be taken seriously.  That's why Chrysler's thank you note got crumpled up and thrown back in it's face, metaphorically speaking.
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Blogging and Customer Service
Posted Saturday, January 3, 2009 by Brian McKay
Customer service and customer support of your company is vital to thrive in our economy.  Blogging to earn customers makes a lot of sense in this vein.  Here's a story to best illustrate what I'm talking about.

Jiffy Lube

I needed an oil change, and I had my 7 month old daughter in tow.  I thought running the car over to Jiffy Lube would be fine.  When I lived in Muncie, the Jiffy Lube delivered consistent service and the staff was friendly.  So, I pulled into Jiffy Lube and waited in line with my car.  Then I waited, then I waited, and then a car pulled out and I watched for 5 minutes while the staff appeared to just hang out before pulling the next car in.  (deep sigh) I was irritated.  There was no communication, and an obvious lack of urgency to be "Jiffy" at all.  So I pulled out in search of at least mediocre service for my car.

I ran a few more errands and remembered another Jiffy Lube closer to my home.  Here comes your second chance Jiffy.  I pulled up right away, the staff was friendly attentive and informative with the service they were going to provide me.  They smiled at me, said hello to my little daughter, and got to work quickly.  They were very "Jiffy," and that is what I wanted to pay for.  I waited for mere moments and I was ready to go. 

One franchise with two locations, and two entirely different experiences.  If Jiffy Lube had a Blog to talk about customer dissatisfaction and satisfaction they would have a voice in the conversation I'm going to have with at least 20 people in my network about my experience.  Let alone the thousands that read my Blog here.  As it stands, they do not have a voice in this conversation.  I'm going to speak the praises of the one location, and tell of the frustration experienced at the other.  My voice is going to be far more powerful than any corporate speak they can drum up, because my voice is authentic.

Corporate Blogging is an answer to a customer like me.  It provides a forum for the good and the bad to be discussed when it comes to your business.  Don't be afraid of the negative feedback Jiffy Lube, embrace it.  You'll become more human, and be able to vision cast for the future of the company with candid feedback from the very customers you are looking to serve month after month.

Your feedback forum does not address search, and provides me, the customer, with none of the feedback from fellow customers.  A Blog will share the dialogue, and can provide real SEO value to your brand.

If your business prides itself on customer service, and works to respond appropriately to upset customers, make the decision to Blog for SEO, and Blog to earn customers in 2009.
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Seth's New Year's Advice....
Posted Thursday, January 1, 2009 by Chris Baggott
Why am I so weak that it takes me 300 words to attempt to say what Seth says in one sentence:

"While the rest of your world huddles and holds back, here's a golden chance to use cheap media, available attention and great talent to make something that matters."

Multi User Blog Software is affordable (cheap), targeted search is how you get in front of available attention when they want to hear from you and your employees are the great talent that both Richard Edelman and Josh Bernoff of Forrester are telling business to leverage to create trusted content. 

What could be simpler?  Embrace a Corporate Blogging Strategy as one of your primary 2009 resolutions.

Thanks for pointing out this quote Debbie Weil.
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2009 Corporate Blogging Strategy
Posted Thursday, January 1, 2009 by Chris Baggott
In the early December SES meeting in Park City there was a lot of talk about 2009 being the year of getting back to "Blocking and Tackling" for online marketers.  Dayna Moon, product sales director at Platform A. "As search marketers, we will be asked to improve efficiencies and maximize ROI,"

Dayna hits it right on the head.   Nothing new here....Vince Lombardi said this:

"Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist but football is only two things - blocking and tackling".

During this conference there was still some beating the drum for integrating video into display ads and mobile, but to the Vince-lovers this was more akin to a Terrell Owens strategy.


Blocking and tackling is just what Dayna said, efficiencies and ROI.   In other words, how easy and how effective.

this is why there is so much momentum for investment in a Corporate Blogging Strategy.   Both B2B as well as Retail Marketers are learning that it's content that drives search results and prospect engagement.   Whoever has more content thats both recent and frequently updated wins.  

Blocking and Tackling simply means empowering your employees to talk about what they are doing...the products, the customers, the service....as Cramer said:  "You talk about your day".

Business blogging passes both of Dayna's blocking and tackling tests;  It's highly efficient because the blog content is frequent and free.   The ROI is easily measurable when compared to pay per click or any of your other traffic generating strategies.  
 
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Spice Up Your Blog - Review of Doug's Talk
Posted Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Jess Wehner
I'm a little late on adding this to my blog (it's been a busy month!) but I did want to highlight some of the great things Doug spoke about in his webinar a couple weeks ago.  We had a client-only webinar where Doug Karr, VP of Blogging Evangilism, spoke about how to "Spice Up Your Blog". 

Here are some of the highlights from the webinar, use these to ensure you are moving forward witha a succesful corporate blogging strategy:

Use a variety of posts (this is great for your readers, providing something for everyone, AND this is great for your bloggers- now they'll never run out of content ideas!  Just write a post on each of the below six topics then lather, rinse, and repeat):

  1. Customer Testimonial
  2. Explanation - describe your products
  3. Tutorial - describe how to do something
  4. Recent News - what's going on in the industry
  5. Lists - top 10, top 5, etc.
  6. Problem/Solutions - state a problem and how you or your company solved it

Use White Space (this allows people to visually break apart your post and pick the parts that are important to them):

  1. Numbered Lists
  2. Subheadings
  3. Ordered Lists
  4. Short Paragraphs
  5. Bolding and Highlighting

Thanks Doug for the helpful tips!
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Managing Your Blogging Time
Posted Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Jess Wehner
 Having trouble finding time to write you blog posts? 

If you're like most of my clients, I'm sure the biggest challenge for your corporate blogging strategy is finding time to blog!   Here are some tips that will help you and your company bloggers set aside time to blog and be more efficient with your blogging time.  Remember, a blog post only needs to be a couple paragraphs long and should only take 20-30 minutes of your time.

  • Set up an outlook calendar reminder to write a blog post (this also helps with consistency, and will remind you to get a post out every Monday/Wednesday, or whatever your schedule might be).
  • Set up a Google Alert to remind you to blog (they will give you news updates when your company or industry is mentioned in the news (read this post to find out how to do it)
  • Set up a blog lunch 1 time per month and make everyone write at least 2 posts by the end of the lunch (and provide them lunch!)
  • Use Dr. Wicked’s Writing Lab to make sure you are only spending 20-25 minutes on a blog post (read more about this tool here)
 
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Blogging is Recession Proof
Posted Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Kristen Raves
It may surprise you that blogging is recession proof.  It is the easiest, low cost form of marketing for your business.  A blog can be just what your company needs during this slow economy.  Writing content on your blog everyday is much more effective then putting thousands upon thousands of dollars into Pay Per Click campaigns, or print and radio advertisements for that matter. 

Believe me blogging is the most cost effective online business if done with passion!  All it takes is a little bit of time.  In just 10 minutes a day, you and your employees can share what it is that you do on a daily basis, the products and services that you sell, and other areas of your business with millions of readers on the web. 

Compendium Blogware has the best blog software for this day in age.  We focus on leveraging the content you write with the keywords that your organization is trying to win in the search engines.  A recent article by eTechBuzz further explains how to make money on your blog in times like these.  Click here to view their article on "More Ways to Make Money During a Recession." 
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Publish your Blog's Feed to Facebook
Posted Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Douglas Karr
Although Facebook has a nice blogging application that you can integrate, it's also quite simple to publish your RSS feed directly to Facebook. 

I'm not a huge fan of Facebook's usability - their navigation is all over the place - so here's a step by step:
  1. Log in to Facebook.
  2. Click on Notes:
    Facebook Notes
  3. Click on My Notes:
    Facebook My Notes
  4. Click on Edit Import settings:
  5. Enter your Blog's RSS Feed into the Import an External Blog:
    Facebook Import an External Blog
  6. Facebook will then show you a preview of your RSS feed in its entirety and it will begin publishing your blog to your profile's Notes.
Leveraging RSS is a great corporate blogging strategy and it requires no additional effort!
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Blogging For Business at it's Best!
Posted Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by Jess Wehner
I'm excited about one of my newer clients who is up and blogging- Green Energy TV.  From the minute their blog was setup, they hit the ground running and they have the results to show for it!  Craig Zamary, founder of Green Energy TV and corporate blogger, does a majority of their posting and has consistently gotten blog posts up since the week that they started.

Because of their consistent posting and use of keywords throughout their blog posts, Green Energy TV has been able to increase their search engine traffic week over week.  After just over a month, 40% of their traffic is coming from search engines.  Although we don't promise the same results to all of our clients, this is one client who proves that posting several times a week from the beginning will lead to increased search engine traffic!


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Add a Feed Subscribe Link to your Website
Posted Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by Douglas Karr
RSS Feed IconSince we're a Software as a Service corporate blogging solution, we make it very easy for our clients to start blogging almost immediately.  Part of our process is for a client to delegate a subdomain to us.

Your brochure website may get traffic as well, though, so be sure to promote your blog to folks that have landed at your website.  You can do this 3 different ways:
  1. You can utilize an RSS Aggregator to actually promote the feeds directly into your website.  We do!
  2. You can add the RSS icon somewhere prominent on your website so that folks who use RSS Readers will identify and subscribe to it.  To find your RSS link, you can go to your blog's page and copy the link from the feed link in your sidebar.
  3. Perhaps the best way is to take advantage of a feature built into all modern browsers.  If you view the Page Source on your blog's page, you'll find a link tag in the header of your page:

    <link href="[YOUR RSS LINK]" type="application/rss+xml" title="[YOUR TITLE]" rel="alternate">

    Copy that line of code and insert it into the header of each of your brosure website pages.  Now folks that visit your website can also subscribe to your blog via the website:
    RSS Link in Website
Having people subscribe to your blog via your feed is powerful because these people have opted-in to you and may be more receptive to making a purchase or utilizing your services in the future.  Promoting the ability for them to subscribe to your feed everywhere you can is extremely helpful!
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Mix it Up with Fourteen Different Types of Posts
Posted Monday, December 29, 2008 by Douglas Karr
Key to a successful corporate blogging strategy is writing compelling blog posts and writing them consistently.  Different readers are attracted to different types of blog posts, though, so it's important to mix up your content with fourteen different approaches to the content you're posting with some examples:
Each of these approaches has advantages and will attract different types of readers.  Many times you can re-write your post to concentrate on a specific strategy.

Can you think of any others?
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I judge posts by their date.
Posted Monday, December 29, 2008 by mikey mioduski

I stumbled upon this article Can Technorati Beat Google at Blog Search? from MediaShift. I read it because it was written a week ago.

One thing that caught my eye had to do with what we tend to ask (perhaps internally) for when we're searching blogs. And that is, when was this post written?

The article quotes Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra:

"99% of all blog searches aim for something less than six months old. About 92% are looking for something less than a month old and over 70% are looking for something a week old."

So true for me. A lot of times, the first thing I look at is the headline. Next I see when it was written. In such a fast paced age of evolution online, I tend to judge the book by its publication date. A bad habit? Maybe. There's obviously tons of still relevant stuff that was written 2+ years ago. But I still do it.

I tend to dismiss things that were written in 2006 or before. I hesitate to read things written in 2007. I read the stuff that was written within the past month.

Snooty right? Apparently I might not be alone.

What does this have to do with your business blog? Well, fresh content not only appeals to the search engines, it appeals to the human eye. Something to consider in evaluating your own corporate blogging practices.
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What do airports and blogging have in common?
Posted Monday, December 29, 2008 by Ali Sales
So I'm in the Atlanta airport right now, with a 3 hour lay over...

I'm getting caught up on some work but can hardly think because of the BLARING overhead speaker notifying passenger Davis that he should report to the front desk. Oh, and passenger Walker, too. And now guess what? The flight to La Guardia is delayed. And passenger Walker, could you PLEASE report to the front desk?

The volume on the speaker is entirely too loud, the voice is nasal, and every single message that has been announced since I arrived has been completely irrelevant to me. I'm flying to Kansas, my name isn't Walker or Davis, and I'm being interrupted while trying to work.

In the world of marketing, interruptions are no less obnoxious and frustrating, and that includes online marketing.

The more that we are interrupted in marketing and life, the more we try to tune out the message. I now have my headphones on because I don't want to be bothered.

You should think about this as you are gearing up for your 2009 marketing initiatives. Starting business blogs should be part of your plan because a corporate blogging program will enable you to intercept prospects and customers online and with a relevant message.

The beauty of a corporate blogging strategy is that you will know exactly what is relevant to your audience because of the keywords that they plug into Google and other search engines.

Interruption marketing is becoming a thing of the past...now if I could just get the Atlanta airport to change their ways, too!
 
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Happy Holidays: Don't forget to Blog!
Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2008 by Douglas Karr
Holiday CandlesThe roads are icy, it's a a long weekend.  You've called a bunch of prospects today and they're all on vacation.  You're wrestling with whether or not to write that final blog post before Christmas.

Who's going to read it?

Google is!

Every year I see so many people make the mistake of not blogging around the holidays. Google's bots and crawlers are not on vacation this weekend, even if your prospects are.

While your competitors are taking the week off of writing relevant content, this is your opportunity to get a leg up on the competition!  It's your chance to get that coveted #1 spot on a Google search engine results page (SERP).

A corporate blogging strategy requires consistency and momentum.  Don't sidetrack your blogging for SEO efforts, continue to post through the holidays and you may be able to add some SEO gifts under your Christmas tree this year!
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Blogging for SEO
Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2008 by Jason Gergely
Search Engine Optimization is a tough thing to control. I would compare it to a wild animal... one minute you think you understand it and have it under control... the next it throws you a loop and you are left on your butt, wondering what happened.

If you really want to harness the power of SEO, you have to look beyond just pay-per-click ads and hiding keywords behind photos on your web pages in hopes to rank higher in Google searches.

Blogging is probably the best way to harness Searches. By including a company blog on your website, you are increasing your likelyhood of ranking higher in Google searching. By blogging for rank, you are reaching more consumers who are looking for your product. What a blog does is constantly update the recent data, the frequency of data and the relevancy to the search on Google. And it isn't a coincidence that Google and other search engines are looking for exactly this. If you are interested now in blogging, check out Compendium's website!
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