Corporate Blogger

Engage your readers

Friday, November 20, 2009 by Michael Burton

We probably all remember that teacher (or teachers) we had growing up who taught classes that seemed to drag on forever. They stood in front of the class, talking in a monotone voice, and they never engaged the class during the hour-long lecture. What was it about those teachers that turned us off so much?

A lot of it probably has to do with the fact we prefer to take part in teaching. The audience likes getting information in a give and take format. It's not just a one-sided thing.

Enter the world of PowerPoint, Youtube clips and other forms of multimedia! Today, many students claim that they focus on a presentation much better if there is multimedia involved.

This same philosophy can carry over to blog posts. It is great if you have a ton of things you want to say in your blog, but it is important to make it easy on readers. Including things like pictures, videos, and links can make blogging for search more fun on the writers and more engaging on readers.

Compendium's business blogging philosophy makes blogging easy and effective for any kind of writer. The important thing to keep in mind for any blogger is to have a way to keep your reader reading. A 500 word paragraph can come across as intimidating and time consuming and cause readers to leave your page.

Blogging, Search, and "All that Jazz"

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Ali Sales Roach

Here at Compendium, we are huge advocates of blogging for search. Simply by having multiple blogs titled with the keyword phrases that your company wants to get found for (versus having a single corporate blog), you are dramatically increases your opportunity for sea ch engine optimization.

But the great thing is that this is not in place of all of the other reasons (all that jazz) why individuals and businesses typically start blogs - to identify with others on a human level, to share information and knowledge, to connect with others - those things stay intact, too.

Take our own blogs here at Compendium as a great example. We have tens of thousands of new people every month who are searching on phrases like "blogging best practices" and finding one of our blogs. When they arrive, they get to see real, happy people who are passionate about what they do sharing helpful information.

At the heart of blogging is still the idea of connecting with people on a personal level and giving them the information that they need and want. Compendium allows companies of all sizes and kinds (over 400 of them!) accomplish this while at the same making it easy for their prospects to find them online.

To see for yourself how Compendium makes this possible, just go here to schedule a quick online demo.

I'm a Blog Admin! Now What?!

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Allison Bowen

As an employee for Compendium Blogware, my job every day is to help our clients with our blog software. This often means that I find myself updating calls-to-action, explaining how clients can add users and answering other various questions that our users and admins might have.

But recently, the tables have turned. I have now become a blog admin myself! Now what do I do?!

Both Amber Mohling and I are fellows with the Orr Fellowship program. The Orr Fellowship program provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate students searching for their first salaried, full-time position following graduation. It's been a great opportunity for both of us!

Well wouldn't you know it, we recently were able to set up an Orr Fellowship blog. And I'm the new blog admin! Check it out -- http://blog.orrfellowship.org. I now find myself actually performing some of the duties that we discuss with clients each day. So as a new blog admin, what have I done? Followed Compendium's blogging best practice tips, of course!

Updated our calls-to-action
Added ShareThis to our blog (visit here and send the code to help@compendium.com)
Encouraged my bloggers to blog frequently and consistently
Made sure each blogger has a sticky post set up
Monitored my Google Analytics statistics (admins should get them each Monday by e-mail)

It has definitely been an adventure, but I'm really enjoying being a blog admin. When I saw the number of click-throughs from our blog and our most recent search results, I was thrilled. Compendium really does provide the best blogging software!

Exciting new feature release this week!

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Abby Brosmer

This week, Compendium was excited to announce a new feature release for all standard users. A keyword tab was added to the text editor screen you see upon login. This tab now allows users the ability to see a full listing of their companies keywords. It also allows for easy navigation and sorting of large and small keyword networks. Want to know more...Check out the solution in our knowledge base.

As a blog contributor, it is important to know what topics are important to focus on. And while the 20 suggested keywords are listed to the right, for general content ideas. Often in a blog post, a user can rearrange a word or two of natural writing to accomplish the addition of a keyword, helping the SEO of their corporate blog.

As far as blogging best practices, I am of the belief that it is import to write naturally and to write about what you know. My own practice is to write a post, keeping in mind a general topic about Compendium and corporate blogging as whole. I write everything and then, I go back and revise to add in some keywords. I never want my content to be stacked with keywords. Not only does it look spammy to the search engines, but it looks spammy to readers as well.

I would love to hear how what you think of the new keyword tool. Also, tell us about how you write...how do you add keywords to you posts, and what are some of your blogging tips?

Blogging and Business Sustainability

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Sarah Sedberry

This morning I was reading an interesting article on business sustainability and how it relates to blogging. It took a refreshing look at why a corporate blog is important to the sustainability of a company, as a communication tool.

A key paragraph stuck out to me, where the author describes how a blog ultimately holds a company and its employees responsible for the message they are delivering and the work they are producing. Which is something that happens internally in a company everyday, but with a blog - it holds you accountable to your customers as well.

"Simply having a company blog open to comments from readers gives a key message on the importance and acceptance of differing viewpoints to that company. When truly an expression of the views of an individual business executive, blogging provides a strong foundation for individual accountability. And through opening him or herself up to a more personal connection with readers I believe the executive blogger creates an environment in which the views of their external stakeholders [potential customers] are front of mind..."

A blog is a simple and effective way to engage with those outside of your company, and allows a business the ability to have a conversation with those interested in their products and services. It allows the company to share its knowledge and show why they are a reliable partner to their clients and customers, in a cost effective and environmentally friendly communication tool.

Full article: "Blogging Really Can Enhance Corporate Sustainability"

Blogging vs. TV commercials

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Stephanie West

I read an interesting article titled, "Balloon Boot Camp," by Mina Kimes in the most recent issue of Fortune Magazine. The article wasn't really an article at all - it was more of a "by the numbers" approach to looking at the giant inflated balloons at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

http://www.gamingangels.com/2009/08/spider-man-returns-to-the-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade/

Here are some of the numbers that I found to be interesting:

3+ million people will "cover Manhattan" to watch the parade.
43 million people are expected to tune into NBC to watch it.
$240,000 - the cost of a 30 second television commercial during last year's parade.

Just look at those numbers - 43,000,000 people are going to tune into NBC to watch the parade, and in turn, watch a 30 second commercial that costs $240,000 for the air time. Amazing!

Television commercials are one way to market your product or service.

Another method worth noting is corporate blogging. The viewers that are tuning into the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade are also tuning into the commercials - whether they realize it or not.

Here's the difference between a television commercial and corporate blogging: Blogging targets those viewers (or searchers) that are looking for YOU. Commercials are targeting a much wider audience, but that audience isn't as interested.

Internet searchers are looking for what YOU (as a blogger) have to say. The audience that you are targeting is one that is interested in your product. It is all part of an inbound marketing strategy. Doesn't this make the sale a little more simple?

Click here for more information on Compendium's inbound marketing strategy. And don't worry, it doesn't cost as much as a 30 second TV commercial during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Corporate blog security

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Brian Millis

Are you one of the thousands of businesses trying to force a freeware blog platform to operate as a marketing tool? Yes?

The most obvious question then is; How is that working out for the company? Is it driving lots of organic search traffic? Converting that traffic into qualified inbound leads? How much revenue have you generated directly from blog leads?

Well, those are all great business questions to consider. But what about an even more basic consideration than measurable results . . . what about:

Is your business blog more of corporate RISK rather than a useful marketing TOOL?

Just check out this recent post from Kyle Brady about a hack-in through a Wordpress blog. In case you don't want to read the entire article, here is what happened:

a list of hundreds of URLs to assorted pages, mostly porn, appeared after the </html> tag on all pages of the site
for content created after the attack, it somehow embedded itself inside the Wordpress content, and all links redirected to a malware site – in addition to breaking the entire page

Now thankfully, the post details out the lengths that were taken to discover the issue and how to fix it. I consider myself pretty technologically savvy, and even I thought it was confusing.

Doesn't that seem like a lot of work to fix a tool that most likely produces very few results? This is the second time just THIS WEEK that I've heard about similar security issues. I think that all businesses out there should be considering third generation corporate blogging. The differences are pretty simple:

Security
Automation
Measurable Results

Be Valuable

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 by Lee Jorgenson

There's a lot of chatter out there these days. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, etc., they all fill the lines with tons of thoughts and opinions. It's suggested that in order to have people re-post your content, you should re-post theirs. It's a great "Do unto others as you would have done unto you" concept, but is it really as virtuitous as it sounds?

If a person doesn't provide value, then they are not worth repeating. Simply pushing someone's content just to get them to do the same in return lessens your value to your readers/followers. You're simply filling the air with noise and diluting your credibility, diong everyone a disservice.

This is especially true of business blogs. Businesses need to leverage corporate blogging as a way to establish credibility in the minds of their markets, and pushing worthless content will only frustrate their readers.

The solution is simple. Be valuable to your readers and provide valuable content. Valuable content is just that, valuable. It should and will be re-posted and promoted because it provides value to the ones who read it AND to the ones who re-post it.

Ready for what?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 by Brian Millis

I sent an email to a prospect that showed a compendium client who increased online revenue by 40% in less than 6 months and has tracked over 100k in online sales back to blog traffic. This was the response that I got back(kept anonymous, of course):

. . . She was interested in the software and we would love to take on blogging in the future, but we are not quite ready at this time. Thank you for the information on Compendium- I will keep your emails and discuss again with my manager when our time comes to enter the blogosphere.

Ready for what? What business is not ready to increase revenue by better search marketing? I feel that it should be every businesses' time to enter the world of corporate blogging. Why? Because it is an easy and efficient way to communicate with target markets online and convert online traffic to paying customers.

Our platform takes most of the fear out of getting started with blogging for business. I think tha

t these responses come from companies that see this strategy as a HUGE time commitment. That really is not the case. You can log into Compendium, get prompted with your most valuable key phrases, have endless content ideas delivered right to you, and get real-time feedback on how you're doing as you write your post.

So what is keeping you from being ready?

CPG Online Marketing Spends

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 by Clayton Stobbs

This morning's eMarketer newsletter caught my eye (article here) as it discussed the trend towards more online marketing spending for consumer packaged goods companies. In the past and even today, CPG firms have largely focused on traditional media and avoided mediums that are more difficult to measure (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, other social networks).

Nevertheless, given the trend, corporate blogging for SEO should be an important strategy to consider. By carefully monitoring and measuring traffic, conversion etc. and tying strategies back to actual product sales, CPG firms could benefit immensely.

Does Blind Forwarding of Information Count as Real Promotion?

Monday, November 16, 2009 by P.J. Hinton

Do you have a friend or relative who is a compulsive forwarder of e-mails? Yeah, I thought so. Every message you receive from them has at least three or four "Fwd" prefixes in the subject line and just as many levels of indented quotation. Usually the content is a chain letter, a hoax, some promotion for a freebie, or an attempt at humor. I've become so jaded that I don't even bother opening them, sending them straight to the trash.

The forward-without-forethought dynamic of e-mail is amplified in newer forms of social media. Case in point -- take a look at the post titled "Twitter is Useless: Simple Case Study" over at WhyDoWork's corporate blog (hat tip to Hacker News). They announced a promotion via Twitter and encouraged retweeting. They found that people kept retweeting and entering long after the promotion wrapped up. As one of the lessons they took away from the experience:

If you’re a marketer, think about running a contest on twitter. Thousands of people will promote your contest for you even after it’s over.

This may well be true, but it also raises the question of whether the recipients and retweeters include large numbers of high quality leads. The promise of a popular freebie with a low barrier to entry is likely to draw in people who have no interest in what you are offering, but they are more than happy to take whatever you might be offering.

I'm just speculating at this point, but I suspect that this type of campaign might be like one of those TV commercials which winds up being too funny or entertaining for its own good. You can't help but tell others about it, but at the same time, you can't remember what product they were promoting in the first place.

Don't be THAT Business!

Monday, November 16, 2009 by P.J. Hinton

Businesses come in all kinds of aspirations, sales figures, and revenue. Some businesses are comprised of teams which include tech savvy staff, and then there are others who don't. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. There are some fields where it just doesn't make sense to pay the salary of a full-time tech guru.

Regardless of your orgainzation's technical savvy, chances are there is a substantial number of potential customers who are looking for what you have to offer via search engines. If you're not showing high up on the rankings for the keywords they're using, then you are as good as nonexistent to these people.

Buying into the growing marketing wisdom of the age, you decide to line up a corporate blogging initiative. When it comes time to pick a platform, you ask around. Some point you to free hosted services. Others tell you to use this or that particular open source package on your own servers. Chances are, you'll opt for the open source package that a large number of businesses are using.

Then the fun begins. Suppose you're one of those businesses whose technical skill on the low end of the spectrum. You'll be faced with a sea of arcane knowledge that will be confusing at worst. Is setup that hard for non-techincal people? Look no further than a blog post published today by Kit O'Toole over at BlogCritics. In setting up a WordPress blog for herself, she ran into a steep learning curve with PHP and CSS, and she learned the hard way what damage can be done when the database gets corrputed.

So then you plonk down a few grand to bring in a social media expert, or you roll the dice and put up an ad on craigslist's computer gigs section offering some amount of money for someone who knows what they're doing. That will cost you maybe a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars just to get up to speed.

Once you've gone live and started creating content, you'll face the challenge of ongoing maintenance. When your blogging platform choice ships a new upgrade, or when there is an advisory about security that needs patching (see Tech Crunch story from June 2008 and Robert Scoble's blog post from September 2009 for some good examples), chances are you'll need to track down that guy who did the original setup (you did keep his contact information, didn't you?) or expend effort getting someone to help you out.

This problem is one of the core value propositions of Compendium. Not only are you buying into a platform for your SEO efforts, you're also getting the backing of a multitenancy application. There are no more installs or upgrades for you to fret about. In fact, new code releases occurring ruing the middle of the week ensure that you'll always have the latest and greatest version of our platform. We worry about uptime, maintenance, and backups, so you don't have to!

E-Retail wants out of the slump . . . Compendium can help

Friday, November 13, 2009 by Brian Millis

Just read this little gem in E-Marketer Daily Newsletter.

"Online merchants are hoping to come out of the economic slump faster than brick-and-mortar stores, and they're ready to spend on the technology and marketing to make it happen. New platforms, customized services and social media marketing are on the menu."

Of course here at Compendium, we already knew this since our clients, like GK Elite have been proving it by driving crazy organic traffic through the blogs leading to record online sales. I feel that online merchants are much quicker to adopt better search marketing tools like Compendium, but the brick and mortar stores don't need to be left behind.

Just look at how HHGregg is promoting coupons, building brand awareness, and giving new reasons to come and check out their in-store selection with their amazing corporate blogging strategy.

Give me a call, 317-777-6254, and we can talk about how your business can benefit from better technology and the power of business blogging.

Gen Y women. What influences their brand discovery?

Friday, November 13, 2009 by Chris Baggott

Can I buy stock in eMarketer?   Every day they send me this great email with relevant content to my business....and yours.

Like this report for example.   Clearly this blog is about education, and persuasion that we offer best blogging software for Business.   Our firm belief is that that Social Media helps a company serve two masters. One is the search engine, and two is the need to humanize your business.

When you see a chart like this, it really helps make the case that if you just look at the responses related to search, online profile, and the two blog mentions (blog written by someone like me and professional or subject experts), you can clearly see that Corporate blogging is the critical hub of todays marketing strategy.

Blogs drive search traffic better than almost anything else...and it's a lot easier and legitmate to simply write often about how you help customers and solve problems than a lot of other SEO tools you might be tempted with.

I also love the phrase: "someone like me".   Obviously, you have people in your organization who fit the professional/subject expert catagory.    But think about it.   Among your employees and your current customers you also have lots of people who can be classified as "someone like me".

Now either Gen X or Gen Y women represents an extremely large catagory.   If you had to make a persona around everyone who could be slotted into these groups you would struggle.   But tactics like triggered emails to existing customers are amazing ways to solicit relevant blog content and engage the long tail of this diverse yet consistant audience.

'Simple' is better in business blogging

Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Brian Millis

Have you ever stumbled across a blog and thought, wow, that is an amazing looking blog? But as you navigate the page, you get lost because there is so much going on? Here are some great examples of incredible blogs that will inspire any digital artist out there. There is no argument that these blogs are beautiful and creative. But if you're a business, and the goal of your corporate blog is to drive visibility through better organic search marketing, is MORE always a good thing?

I think not. What is great about Compendium Clients, is that their blogging has a true purpose. As you can see from that link, we have some great looking templates as well. But everything is focused at the ROI of business blogging. It's simple:

Write useful content
Get found in search by the right people
Convert that traffic to a lead with a clear Call-To-Action
Make more money

Now of course I understand that interaction, engagement, subscriptions, etc. are all wonderful as well. But for a business, what is most important? Therefore, next time you find a company blog, take a hard look at all the widgets and gadgets that consume the page. Are they really helping? Take a note from unrelated businesses on simplicity. Simple can be better!

Whose success are you measuring?

Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Stephanie West

When it comes to stories of success, Compendium wants to make sure you know how its corporate blog software will fit into your daily routine.

There are numerous case studies available from various companies' success stories. They are all real stories from real companies that have seen success from Compendium's corporate blogging software.

For more of these success stories and more information on them, sign up for Compendium's free Webinar: Finding Business Blogging Success: Real-Life Stories. The Webinar will be hosted by marketer Chris Baggott, CEO and CoFounder of Compendium Blogware.

The Webinar will take place on November 18th, from 2-3pm EST and it will share the successes of several companies, including an eCommerce Gymnastics Apparel Company, SaaS Event Management and Web Survey Company, and Concrete and Services Company in Minneapolis.

In addition, the Webinar will cover:

Best Practices for ROI driven business blogging.
Real-life examples of successful blogging strategies.
How to set up a blogging strategy built for success.

Don't hesitate, sign up today!

A business blogging lesson from my Dad

Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Brian Millis

One of my favorite words of wisdom from my Dad is: Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

He used to say that to me when I would complain about my job mowing lawns and interning in an extremely boring company. He would follow this up with a great lesson that has always proven itself true to me. If you always work hard, and put your full effort into something, the money will follow. This was my Dad's way of instilling a strong work ethic in me. However, I think that the same lesson can be applied to business blogging as well.

If a company feels that communicating on a human level with their target market is important, than isn't it worth doing well? I believe it is. And if you start a corporate blogging strategy in the right way and stick with the program, the money will indeed follow. Compendium's easy to use blog software just makes it easier to find success. With a small investment in this technology, businesses can focus on good, consitent content that adds value to a searcher. Here are 3 features that make this simple:

Provided with the important targeted keywords for your business
Endless stream of content ideas
Immediate feedback on how you're doing writing keyword rich content

Go ahead, request a demo and we'll show you how easy business blogging really can be. Remember, if you think that search marketing is worth doing, isn't it worth doing well?

Indiana's Top 50 Blogs - I made the cut!

Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Megan Glover

I received some great news this morning... the results are in, and I'm among the Top 50 Blogs in Indiana. Thanks to all who voted!

While I'm humbled so many of my family, friends and colleagues turned out to support me, there are truly some awesome bloggers that did not fall within the Top 50. I encourage you to take a moment to look at the entire list - it's a great representation of the innovative talent we have in Indiana.

Just click on the badge below to view the entire list.

What's your claim to fame?

Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Stephanie West

Companies have found their claim to fame in various ways. Some companies are fortunate enough to have found a big break, but most companies aren't that fortunate.

http://thecowhideglobe.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

I'm not a company - I am just an intern, so I'm always looking for my big break. I think my big break came at the Indiana Pacers game tonight. For the first time ever, I was on the kiss cam. It was a scene straight out of the movie, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." It was classic. My claim to fame was in Conseco Fieldhouse on a jumbo screen in front of 10,000 people. I got lucky.

But not everyone gets a big break like I did.

Most companies need to work toward whatever their "claim to fame" may be. A company's "claim to fame" is generally its service or product.

So how do you get noticed?? One way is to BLOG!

Corporate blogging is a great way to share your success with internet searchers - or anyone that is looking for what you have to offer. By using Compendium's simple blogging software, you can have your fame just by blogging for your business.

I got lucky by getting on the kiss cam - it's not always that easy though! The best way to get found is sharing your service or product with others - so start by using Compendium's corporate blog software!

Disclaimer: I really was on the kiss cam last night but it's not my claim to fame. It was used as an example for this blog post...