Corporate Blogger

The Worst Thing I Heard At Blog Indiana

Posted Wednesday, August 20, 2008 by Chris Baggott

So I was privileged to teach a session on Advanced Business Blogging at the recent Blog Indiana event in Indianapolis. I learned a lot and there were some really smart people with some really good ideas and advice for Blogging in general and Corporate Blogging specifically.

But there was a LOT of Bull S--- too. I'm not normally one to go negative but some of this stuff makes me so mad that smoke comes out of my ears.

Blog Indiana Bad Business Blogging Advice, Comment Monitoring

The experience has given me an idea for a whitepaper: "Top Ten Lies about Business Blogging" (once I calm down, I'll probably change the word Lies to Myths)

This person (who's name escapes me) was doing a session on Business Blogging as well. A woman asked about comments and explained that her CEO wouldn't let them start a company blog unless he could review and reject comments he didn't like.

The advice?? Basically, it's better not to do a blog at all if you are going to actively manage comments!

I was incredulous.   Of course a corporation has to monitor not only comments, but blog posts as well. There is a lot of responsibility and liability for anything that appears on your site...including your blogs.

If Blog Benefits = 100%   Comments in general represent < 10% of that benefit.

The reality is that most business blogs never get that many comments anyway. Comments should never be used as a primary gage of success.   Think about Traffic, Search Engine Optimization and Conversions. Those are the real metrics of blogging best practices.

So my surprise was this idea that if you are not 100% you shouldn't do anything at all was just bad advice.

Stay tuned...I've got another 9 to go :-)

Don't think "website in" think "search engine out".

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Lindsey Young

In our CEO Chris Baggott's latest white paper, he quotes William Flaiz of Search Engine Watch:

"“People don't go to Web sites anymore. Web sites come to them. This is, perhaps, the best way to explain the impact of search on the online experience.”

I was experiencing how very true this is, just last night. You see my fiance and I are huge Purdue football fans. (I went to Ball State, but I've been adopted in) I was searching for some new gear for us this season, namely some hooded sweatshirts, jersey's, etc. as we go to all home games. What did I do? I Google'd it. I didn't know any of those companies, or their website url's. But by searching for what I wanted, I sure did find plenty of people wanting to help me find my Purdue gear!

This is exactly why so many people are coming to Compendium for help with their business blogging. They want to be found, and we get them found! If you haven't already read this white paper, I'd highly recommend it to any potential bloggers. Go to our website and check it out! Blog for your business!

Creative Content from BabyPlus

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

Congratulations to BabyPlus for making it to the second round of the Compendium Blogware Blogging Tournament of Champions. BabyPlus not only creates a lot of content, but they are creative about it as well. They are averaging almost 5 posts per blogger per month which is paying off.

How do they get their bloggers to write content on a constant basis? They do so by having fun. As you can see from the pictures in this post, they motivate their bloggers by keeping them laughing. Giving them popcorn is not "corny" as you can see, it is entertaining. They also award each other with the "Best Blogger of the Month" award which is a hot commodity at this place! It is a coveted certificate naming one person as the "best in blog" for the month.

Not only are BabyPlus' in-office motivation tactics creative, but so are their blogs. The content they write is always fresh and new. BabyPlus does a great job of incorporating current events into their posts. Another reason they are receiving such a high number of visitors is that they do a nice job of creating fun and interesting titles. Good job BabyPlus, see you in the next round!

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Team building at Oliver

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

Those of us in the Client Success area at Compendium Blogware (as well as our entire organization) work hard and pride ourselves on our ability to work well together in order to ensure our clients are seeing ROI on their Corporate Blogs. Every now and then, we do break out of the office for some team building.

Last week the Client Success team took a team trip to Oliver Winery, located in Bloomington, Indiana. For those not familiar with the Indiana terrain, Bloomington is home to Indiana University, and is south of Indianapolis.

Client Success Team with Bill and Dennis in Oliver Vineyard

(Front Row: Dennis Dunham (Oliver), Chantelle Flannery, and Abby Brosmer-Rivera)
(Back Row: Loren Sandman (ICVA), Kristen Hanschu, Sarah Sedberry, Jeff Lefevere, and Bill Oliver (Oliver))

It was an experience none of us will soon forget, as we were taken on a personal tour of the Winery and Vineyard by Bill Oliver (Owner) and Dennis Durham (Winemaker), and treated to a fantastic dinner prepared by Oliver Winery's own Heidi, at the Oliver Farmhouse.

Our team was able to see how wine is made from start to finish at Oliver, complete with tours of their lab, tasting from the oak barrels, seeing them package the wine,

to sampling their new line of Skydog.

For those that are not familiar, there have been several commercials out recently promoting this new line of wines from Oliver. There are several new aspects to Skydog for Oliver, including a twist cap (instead of the traditional cork), and a economical price of $7.50 a bottle.

Most endearing about this line of wines, currently involving a red, white, and rose, is the mascot. To quote straight from the bottle...."Watch out…it's hard to resist a dog with a jet pack."

Dennis, Sarah, and Bill with the Skydog line

The day was a special one for all of us, and we could not be more appreciative to Bill and Dennis for their personalized attention and the patience to answer all our questions! We will not soon forget the experience and hope to plan a return trip soon.

Official Blogging Tournament Rules

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

The tournament began on August 11th and we are now moving into round two. Customers will compete to advance in a Compendium organized blogging tournament based on number of posts written by the client, week-by-week. The Blogging Tournament is designed to create some spirited competition amongst our customers in a battle of the ultimate team game—business blogging. You will be pitted randomly against another Compendium customer in the ultimate blogging championship.

Tournament Rules

You need do nothing to enter the tournament. To participate write blog posts as you normally would, or with a great deal more frequency to more effectively compete.
Winners in the tournament will advance from a field of over 100 on a weekly basis based on the amount of posts generated by each team.
If there is an equal number of posts between the two teams over the course of the week the previous week’s posts will be used to determine who will advance. We will review as many of the previous weeks as necessary in order to break the tie.
A week's worth of posts start on Monday and end on Sunday.
In order for a post to count it must be considered legitimate blog posts. This means that the post must be at least 5 sentences long and contain at least two keywords.
Remember that you’re writing on a corporate blog so talk about appropriate topics that relate to your industry and company.
Please note that sticky posts don’t count.

Tournament Prizes
The winner of the Championship earns a handsome trophy denoting blogging superiority and a bottle of Champaign. There will also be a $50 gas card for the account Administrator and a $50 gas card for the top blogger on the team. The other three final teams will receive a $50 gas card.

Tournament Contact Information
Please have fun with the tournament - use this as a tool internally to mobilize around content development. Keep an eye on Chantelle Flannery’s blog and the tournament bracket for updates.

Write content. Get found in search. Convert traffic. Demonstrate ROI. Crush the competition in business blogging, tournament style!

Blogging from Blog Indiana

Posted Saturday, August 16, 2008 by Megan Glover

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

What makes a great corporate blog,

Blog Review/Critquie Open Discussion,

Showing off you blog.

Blog Etiquette and Ethics

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

Ready, Set, Go!

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

Our implementation manager here at Compendium, Abby, has done an excellent job of graduating several clients this week and we are very excited to see what they can do.

Check out the newest Corporate blogs to Compendium's platform:

Data Recovery Specialists: A company that focuses on data recovery and computer forensics. Their success rate for data recovery is one of the highest in the industry and they offer extremely competitive rates for their services.

MediaTile:MediaTile is one of the very few companies in the world that provides a comprehensive, all-in-one digital signage platform that integrates an LCD HD display, media player, network access, and a web-based control system.

Roberts Distributors: Roberts focus is on Photo, Video, Electronics, and Imaging. They offer comprehensive classes as well as all the equipment needed to make you a pro!

We look forward to great content and although they were not able to get into this month's Blogging Tournament - Content for the Crown, I'm sure they will give the next round of competition a run for their money!

Search Engine Optimization spending increases

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Eric Romer

A new survey from the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) shows that both advertisers and agencies are ramping up their spending in Search Marketing, particularly organic SEO. This shouldn't be shocking news, as Search Marketing has steadily grown, and will continue to grow as less and less people use destination websites.

It's not rocket science. If I am looking for a particular brand of jeans, or a specific tea pot my mom was talking about, I search. I Google "cast iron asian tea pot", and start my research.

As the survey shows, advertisers are increasing their organic SEO by 28%, and agencies by 73% (the highest increase of all the categories!). So what does this mean? It means companies are trying to optimize a traditional website to be found on many different keywords. The only problem is a website will only be able to capture a handful of keywords. There are hundreds, thousands of different ways I can search for that tea pot. As a business who sells that product, I need to cast a wide net and be found on as many of those terms as possible.

Don't believe me? If you have 5 minutes, check out this Whitepaper that discusses how traditional SEO efforts pale in comparison to a corporate blogging solution when it comes to organic search.

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?

But...how will I find the time?!

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Lindsey Young

Time is money. This statement just becomes more and more literal as families, businesses, and life get more demanding. Between juggling day to day duties of our positions within our companies, employers and employees alike are hesitate to add one more responsibility to the mix, such as blogging. A common misconception within the group of people I speak with is that investing in a corporate blog is going to eat up too much of their time. Erroneous! I like to negate this idea with the following information: the beauty of our compended blogs is that the responsibility is spread out among several people, the time needed to create a post is minimal...and here is the point I really want to stress to potential clients with the time constraint objection:

Each user should post 2-3 times per week
Approximately 250 word blog posts
Conversational in tone
10-15 minutes MAX to create

If you did the math there, that's about 30 minutes a week! Blogs shouldn't be rocket science, just engage your reader enough to take the next step. Finding relevant information through your company blog will point them in the right direction to becoming your client, customer, or consumer.

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.

A Battle of the Greats

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

You might not be aware of this, but the greatest spectacle on earth is taking place right now. No, I am not talking about the Beijing Olympics. What I am talking about is the Compendium Blogware Blogging Tournament of Champions.

As it is also commonly referred to as "Content for the Crown", this tournament is an all out fight to the death. Well, not really. It is, however, a tournament to determine which of our clients is producing more content than all the others.

In round 1, we have two of our greats going up against one another. Roto-Rooter and Conclusive Marketing are two of our clients that constantly produce well organized and informative content. They continually follow "blogging best practices" by producing at least two blog posts per blogger each week. Their dedication to constantly updated content certainly pays off for them. Not only do they see their blogs ranking on the first page of Google, but they are both receiving more traffic. Coincidence, we know not.

Good luck to both teams. We look forward to reading your blog posts. To view the brackets, click here.

The New Age of Recruiting

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by meghan peters

Many organizations are used to posting open positions or internships on their website, compiling submitted resumes and then weeding out for interviews. But what if this process was changed and all the work was done by the student and all the company had to do was show up for an interview? This may seem like a strange idea, but it's not so strange for those ambitious and creative college students. With hard times in the economy and job market, many college students are trying to find another way to land their first big position or internship.

This introduces you to the idea of informational interviews. Informational interviews are basically when a soon-to-be college grad does some research on a company they find interesting then contact a specific department to see if they can conduct an informational interview to get to know the company and positions they offer, and to sneak in some advice from someone who has been in the business for a while.

Now you are probably wondering how this pertains to blogs? In a recent blog post on MarketingSherpa by Anne Holland she found that the blogosphere is a great place for college grads to do some research on potential future employers. Not only does blogging boost your SEO but it also puts a human voice to your company, which helps students identify with your company a bit easier.

There are a lot of students that graduate from college every summer and companies want to be sure they get someone who is going to bring something to the table. So why not attract some bright stars? I'm sure you already have plenty of great reasons to implement Corporate Blogging, but I think you can add this to your list!

Blogging Tournament!

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

It is Tournament time here at Compendium Blogware. The quest "Content for the Crown" has officially begun!!

Content for the Crown

To see who you are up against, check out the tournament bracket.

Let your competitive spirit out and make sure you post! Click here to login and start writing content for your corporate blog now.

Also, we encourage healthy competition and banter. Feel free to post comments, as trash talking is allowed. Please do keep in mind that unsportsmanlike conduct is not condoned and could result in disqualification from the Tournament.

When it comes to witting content for the Blogging Tournament - One thing to remember is that content will be reviewed and all posts must be considered legitimate blog posts. This means that the post must be at least 5 sentences long and contain at least two keywords. Remember that your writing on a corporate blog so talk about appropriate topics that relate to your industry and company. (Please note that sticky posts don’t count.)

You can follow the blog tournament progress on Chantelle's blog.

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!

Times Are Changing

Posted Tuesday, August 12, 2008 by meghan peters

The days when you would write a letter to catch up with a friend are long gone and have been for some time now. In this day and age if someone wants to catch up with a friend they can be found texting, emailing or possibly even reading their blog! Now is a great time to jump on the technology band wagon because you never know what is going to come next in the technology world. However, this is great news for organizations and their marketing tactics.

I recently read an article from IMedia Connection that I thought captured the essense of blogging from a human perspective perfectly. In the 2008 Compass Partners/BlogHer Study they found that "Traditional advertising has become so commoditized. Now we pay attention to what our friends say." said Jory Des Jardins from BlogHer Inc. The Compass Partners study goes on to show that some people rate bloggers' writing as more credible than traditional media.

Click here to view the complete article:
It's a Bloggers World; learn to fit in

With this shift well on its way, organizations need to embrace the future of blogging. Those who stick with tradition are sure to be left behind because one thing is for sure - Times Are Changing!

My Facebook Addiction and Blogging

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

I admit, I have a slight Facebook addiction and through my self justification of this time waster --- I realized a few of the reasons I am so addicted to Facebook:

There is always something new to see, whether someone has added new pictures or updated their relationship status. I believe there is some certain interest in anything new --- most of these 'new things' I couldn't care less about in real life and would never seek out the information -- but its there right in front of my face and NEW so I look at it.
It's real --- real people, that are also at their computers updating their status, adding pictures and adding friends. These people are LIKE ME.
Pictures and videos -- I read all day...emails, the paper, notes...how nice is it to see engaging PICTURES and VIDEOS. The cheesy line of "a picture says a thousand words" isn't too far off when it comes to looking through someone's Facebook photos.

The thing is...these three things are the same reasons that blogs are so great to engage prospects! Now, being focused on business blogging, my end goal isn't to get someone to visit my corporate blog five times a day, but it is to engage the reader and the same tactics that make social networking so addictive can work, even for the non-social networkers that are out there searching for the solution to their problem on search engines -- having a well search engine optimized business blog that includes the newness factor along with real, human interaction (showing people that I am normal and like them) and having some great engaging videos and pictures can be a great tactic to engage your prospects in a deeper conversation to learn more about your business, just as Facebook can be a great place for individuals to learn more about one another (whether necessary information or not).

What's your blog bracketology?

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

Can you predict the bracket? In order to set up your picks go to the brackets main page and click on the ‘predict it’ link at the top of the bracket. Create a login for the bracket system and fill out your picks. The person who most accurately predicts the bracket will win a special prize. Note that the prize winner must be contributing content to their corporate blog during the entire tournament. You have until midnight on Monday August 11th to finalize your bracket.

One thing to note - although we are a competitive group here at Compendium we do not condone office gambling as it relates to this tournament and we will also not be held responsible for loss of productivity :-) Please make sure that your focusing on how you can help your team advance in the bracket create content.

Click here to add content to your blog now.

Writing Content for the Blogging Tournament

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

The first round of the competition begins on Monday August 11th and ends on Sunday August 17th. Now is the time to begin motivating bloggers and planning out content for next week. For some great content development tips check out probloggers post on”24 things to do when stuck for a topic to blog about”.

Personally when I am stuck the when writing a blog post the first thing I do is start reading industry newsletters. I probably receive at least 10 new industry emails a day and subscribe to at least 20 RSS feeds that I read on a regular basis. When you're stuck what do you do?

When it comes to witting content for the Blogging Tournament -
One thing to remember is that content will be reviewed and all posts must be considered legitimate blog posts. This means that the post must be at least 5 sentences long and contain at least two keywords. Remember that your writing on a corporate blog so talk about appropriate topics that relate to your industry and company. Please note that sticky posts don’t count.

Start adding posts to your corporate blog today!

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