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As it is the first of December and those in the Client Success Team here at Compendium Blogware are obsessed with the fist snow that happened this weekend, and all of the merriment to come this month, we wanted to send out our own little holiday spirit.

I admit that this idea came from our client The Sanders Group, and encourage you to post your own, as adding a little fun into your corporate blog allows readers to relate to you and see the personal side of your business.

Enjoy and extra points if you can name everyone in the video!


Send your own ElfYourself eCards



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First, I'll throw out a disclaimer that my percentage is made up.  I keep Google Alerts on corporate blogging and read each and every blog post out there.  I'd actually estimate 99% is a low number because I have yet to find really great (or even half-decent) advice for corporate blogging out there.

Wrong WayThe majority of advice out there is written, re-written, borrowed and stolen from other inaccurate articles out on the web. Misinformation spreads like a disease on the net. 

Other advice is written by professional bloggers who are adept to putting out  publications, but do not depend on their corporate blog to drive conversions on other products or services. 

These blogging publications sell ads and some make quite a bit of money doing it.  As such, their personal business doesn't depend on the accuracy of the information that they are sharing, only the quantity and popularity of the content.

Additionally, you'll find a world of social media experts out there - some know how to implement open source blogging engines, some are graphic artists selling themes, and others are search engine optimization experts who know how to properly structure and write a blog post.  Very few of them are trying to run a business off of their blog utilizing it as a strategic marketing tool.

If you're going to read a post on corporate blogging advice, make sure the source actually has both experience AND their business depends on the accuracy of the advice.  Compendium Blogware's success depends on how well the strategies and platform assist our clients' business.  Not only do our customers succeed in their strategies, a majority of them actually upsell their engagements with us.

Watch where you get your advice from.  Look for real-world examples rather than blanket lists of business blogging tips.  Don't believe the hype!



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Erich Schonfeld has a post at Tech Crunch about how Facebook recently experienced a data loss that resulted in evaporation of its user's e-mail notification preferences.  He takes comfort in the fact that it was a loss that should provide only a minor, and short-lived, annoyance to users, but he also notes that had the preference been something that regarded privacy settings, the results could have been much worse.

As a developer, I have an idea of what might have happened in the data loss.  I wouldn't want to be the person who was responsible for the data loss.  It's good that we see these stories because it's a sobering reminder of the dangers of working with live data.

Almost every web-based application has to persist data.  Facebook stores profile information in addition to preferences.  E-mail services store messages and the preferences that govern the behavior of the application's user interface.  Content management applications (blogs included) store posts, comments, and page layout information.

Usually this data goes into a relational database management system (RDBMS) like MySQL, MS SQL Server, or Oracle.  But performance issues have led some to question the database design best practices that have been in use over the past two or three decades.  Others have one so far as to speculate that RDBMSes may be so ill suited to some data persistence uses that one should consider using something else.

Regardless, the data you submit to a web application gets poked into some means of persistence, and then later on it is read by the application for generating pages (like this blog post) or making a decision (like whether to notify an administrator immediately when a blog post has been submitted for approval).

The world is neither perfect nor static.  Sometimes a bug in an application can result in the creation of bogus database entries.  It's not enough to stop the application from doing that again, it's also important to determine if the damaged data can be repaired.  If the damage is on the order of hundreds or thousands of items, a script may need to be created to repair the damage.

Here is where things can get dangerous.  Repair scripts sometimes need to make destructive changes (i.e. SQL DELETE statements) to a table.  It is very important for the script's author to have an understanding not only of the table being modified but also any quirks in the semantics of column entries. 

For example, rows created early in the application's history may not have stored ID values for certain types of entries.  When these things are not taken into account, a repair script may inadvertently delete rows that may not be valid in current application usage but are still essential pieces of data.

When things like this happen it's not always obvious that something has gone wrong in the application.  For the most part things may work fine, but then all of the sudden people notice that information on certain pages is missing.

Times like this, it's nice to have a backup of the database from which to restore the lost data.  My guess is that the Facebook development team decided that the loss was not severe enough to perform the recovery.  On the other hand, if the decision was based on the lack of a recent backup to restore from, then shame on them.

Here at Compendium, we devoted a code review a couple months back to developing some standards and best practices for writing database repair and maintenance scripts.  This helped us to move from an ad hoc patchwork of scripting styles to a more consistent, reliable, and reusable body of code.  Some of the guidelines that emerged from those discussions:
  • Proposed database schema changes should be vetted by all members of the engineering team.  Once agreed upon, the system engineering team needs to be notified of these changes so that backup scripts can be adjusted.
  • Environment settings (e.g. production or development) should be specifiable from the script's command line arguments and then determined programmatically by the framework if not specified there.  There should be no hard coding of these values.
  • If there are model classes or data access objects that can be used to manipulate the data, the script should use these rather than using hand crafted SQL strings.
  • One-time use scripts should be named after the work item number that they were created for.  Multiple use scripts should be flexible to handle a wide number of use situations, named for the tasks they perform.
  • All repair and maintenance scripts should be placed under revision control.
These guidelines help us to ensure that when things need to be fixed or reconfigured, they are done with minimal risk to the data.



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CNet's Victoria Ho recently wrote an article about remarks from Gartner and IDC saying that Microsoft's Internet Explorer is too entrenched within large corporations for it to lose market share in that space.

Gartner's rationalizations for continued IE dominance are:
  • companies depend on too many applications that tie into Microsoft's HTML rendering engine
  • Microsoft provides tools for the centralized administration of IE, something that alternative browsers don't offer
IDC says that it's a self-reinforcing loop.  Because IE is the dominant browser in corporate computing environments, application developers will expend the greatest amount of energy making sure their products work on IE.

I don't doubt that there is a mindset that perpetuates this pattern.  Last week, I spoke with someone who works in QA for a large web application software development company that still has their computing environment standardized on IE 6, a browser that is broken with respect to standards compliance and way behind the times technologically (example: do you remeber what it was like to browse the web without tabs?)

The irony is that the centralized administration tools cited by the IT analysts empower dinosaur minded administrators to turn their computing environments into technological backwaters, elevating the risk of their systems being compromised by malicious software.  As Windows XP support phases out, the updates to IE 6 will cease, making the security issue all the more prevalent.

Eight or so years ago, when Internet Explorer was the pretty much the only game in town with respect to dynamic HTML, one could make the business case that the added functionality in IE justified the lock-in.

Things have changed since then.

The alternative browsers have introduced DOM manipulation through JavaScript, CSS compliance with W3C specifications has improved dramatically, and the adoption of the XMLHttpRequest object made widespread AJAX development feasible.  Several JavaScript libraries have been developed to abstract away browser-specific issues, like incompatible event models, that have hobbled developers from developting for other browsers.  Microsoft's ActiveX technology has become so tarnished that security experts advocate disabling it

In short, one can develop a modern web application that delivers rich functionality without the Microsoft lock-in and the security holes that they sometimes introduce.

One of the most painful lessons of the recent economic downturn is that the inability to adapt to the times portends a rough, if not fatal, passage for an organization.  The plight of the big three auto makers is a prime example of the dire consequences the market metes out to companies that are too entrenched in their ways.

It's also worth noting that when it comes to the startups that are developing the next generation of technologies, Microsoft's .NET technologies aren't winding up on the development short lists.  Microsoft's desperation has escalated to the point where it launched a program earlier this month to encourage adoption of .NET by startups by dangling free development tools.

The development ecosystem has progressed to the point where web user interface engineers can use third-party libraries to develop their pages using a browser like Firefox and expect it to work on most recent browsers.  Some additonal tweaks are sometimes needed to get styling to appear correctly in IE 6, but developers have long agreed that IE 6 is a pain.  Firefox has a large number of extensions that make a developer's life a lot easier.  To get anything even close on IE, Microsoft requires you to use Visual Studio, which is a bloated approach to the problem.

IE may be the default browser in the enterprise for the near term, but as Microsoft prods customers to migrate away from Windows XP, the reasons that the analysts give for continued lock-in will wane.



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It was a little over a year ago that I interviewed for my current job here at Compendium.  It started out as a fluke.  I saw a short-lived job announcement that a recruiter had posted to a technical employment board, and the list of skills and technologies floored me... Agile development?  Amazon Web Services? LAMP stack?  Surely this was too good to be true!  It read more like a job posting for somewhere other than Indy, perhaps San Francisco or Seattle, but not here.  Indianapolis was the land of .NET and Java EE development within a staid corporate environment.

Although the announcement disappeared after a day or two, my interest did not.  I decided to use long tail search queries involving phrases from the job announcement to see if I could figure out what company might have been advertising the role.  A combination of references to Amazon Web Services and Indianapolis turned up a post on a personal blog maintained by Blake Matheny, who had hired on with Compendium a couple months before.  The post mentioned how he had recently moved to the area, was looking for new talent, and wanted to hear from people who might be interested. 

I had a good idea he might have something to do with the job announcement, so I e-mailed him using the contact address for the blog, telling him:
At first glance, my work experience might not be a perfect match, but I have a track record for adaptability and the ability to learn new things.  I also believe that the skills you're looking for constitute a career direction that I would like to pursue, especially with respect to web technology and agile software development.  I also happen to be local to Indianapolis.
That was the start of a conversation that would lead to two interviews and eventually a job offer.  As you might have guessed, I gladly accepted and have been here since.

Startups can be demanding.  I knew that coming into this role because I had worked at a startup the previous two years, a place that had big ideas but not enough resources and discipline to execute on them.  But I also knew that my unusual software development background, which involved small companies and lots of original development work, made me a good match for the kind of things startups do.  In sort, Compendium is the kind of place that I could thrive in... and I have done so.

Over the course of almost 11 months, I have worked with a large number of technologies... PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, Amazon SQS, Google Visualizations, the Yahoo User Interface library, XSLT, XML/HTML DOM, memcache, XML-RPC web services, RSS search feeds, just to name a few.  Early on in the job, I told Blake that this job seemed like a professional fountain of youth for me, and I still feel that way to this day.

Within our group there is a culture of professional development.  We do more than just write code.  We have regularly scheduled reading group meetings where we can talk about technologies that we could incorporate into future versions of our application.  We also have regular code reviews where we get a chance to improve our skills and codify our own set of guidelines and best practices.

So, on a day where we set aside time to express gratitude for the good things in our lives, I would have to say that this job is among them.  But it wouldn't stop there...

There are a lot of startups with neat ideas and fun technologies, but a lot of them don't survive.  Difficult economic times make the body count all the higher.  When I was considering Compendium for employment, I did some homework, recalling stories I had seen about Chris Baggott and Compendium over the course of 2007.  Chris' experience as an ExactTarget co-founder was a strong point because he had been successful in getting a startup off the ground. 

Moreover, having been a reader and author of blogs in the past, their message about the potential for corporate blogging made sense.  After all, it was through search that I had found Blake's blog.  The company has done well over the past year, with progress that would make most startups green with envy.  We've managed to do all of this in spite of the tumutuous economic condtions.  Whereas big names like Technorati and SixApart are cutting salaries and trimming budgets, we're looking for new people.

So I am also thankful that I work for a company that is as well run as it was well conceived.

Finally, I am thankful for my coworkers.  Within my own department, Blake has done a great job of putting together a technical team that works well together, even when things get stressful.  There is a shared sense of humor, perhaps a bit quirky at times (a paper DUNCE cap, a junk food laden trip to the State Fair, an inflatable sword have all been involved) that helps us keep our sanity.  We get a lot done, but we do so with a lot of laughs throughout the day.  The other departments are pretty cool, too.  As I learned on the company rafting trip in late July, even though I am a bit older than most of them, they still don't have any issues with me hanging with them. :-)

So, yeah, I do have a lot to be thankful for.



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I feel like naming individual blog posts can be the most important part of actually posting the blog, especially if you are doing it for a corporate blog. Business blog names are vital because when people are doing searches, they don't want to see someone's blog title that doesn't sound like it has any credibility what-so-ever. You can't just name your blog post anything. Your title needs to be well thought out and directed to helping your company win searches online.

I recently read an article entitled, "Blog Marketing Tips #1; How to Optimize Blog Post Titles". After reading this article, I found how to better arrange words in my titles. Author Andy Beal says to keep your blog title "short and sweet". If you give to much information in the blog title, what is the point in reading your blog? Makes sense doesn't it?

Andy also suggests that you can also make your blog title better for your business blog if you include keywords in your titles. If you need any suggestions or ideas, you can look at what some of the employees at Compendium Blogware have done to help increase our SEO by selectively choosing how they name their posts.



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Lateral thinking... you may not know what it is or how it could help out blog posting. Lateral thinking is sort of like "right brained" thinking, thinking outside the box when given a problem. By using your creative side, you can add a little spice to your writing, making it more entertaining and attractive for your readers.

While reading an article titled, "Five Steps to a Truely Unique Blog That Attracts Readers and Revenue," I found different ways to make a blog more unique. One of the steps, author Brian Clark says "Make jokes about your business, and then take the joke seriously. Humor contains truth, and truth, uncomfortable or not, is an excellent starting point for innovation." This will help add a little color to your corporate blog, making it more unique and able to stand out from other blogs.

However, jokes aren't the only way you can add a little flavor to your blog posts. You can add pictures, videos, etc. Just go out and come up with your own ways to differentiate your blog from others out there. If you need some ideas, you can check out the blogs of Compendium's employees to see how they make their company blogs more attractive!



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I was speaking with Mobile Marketing expert, Adam Small, last night and he vented to me about a recent meeting.  A "business consultant" came in and told him how he was going to transform his business... without even asking Adam what his business model, pricing model, competition, challenges, etc. were.  Adam quickly ended the meeting.

There are two huge mistakes that I see most businesses make when it comes to blogging:
  1. Lack of strategy
  2. Lack of measurement
Most of the problem is the disinformation that is spread on the Internet.  Blogging seems to have this magical and overstated impact on businesses today so every marketer is turning to blogging to help drive their bottom line.  But business blogging strategies are failing... miserably.  Some sources estimate that up to 75% of business blogs fail.  Not our clients.

Additionally, there's an explosion of social media experts and blogging experts out there that started a blog a few years ago and now they're going to tell you all about how it's going to help your business.  When it doesn't, they leave you in the dust to clean up.

If your "expert" hasn't defined strategies and goals, and instead, threw a free blogging platform up and sent you a login...

Fire them.

You can't hide from these folks - just do a few searches for corporate blogging and strategies out on the web. Participate in a regional blogging conference. Count how many talk about your business and how you drive customers.  Count how many talk about measuring results.  Most don't.  They talk in terms of vague and unmeasurable strategies like engagement and transparency.

Fire them now.

Authority, engagement and transparency are all valid tactics when writing blogs for business, but the ultimate goal is to grow qualified leads through search acquisition for new prospects and upsell opportunities by building relationships with current clients.

The reason I'm telling you to fire them is because the work they need to do is very basic.  Researching your company to get a solidified keyword strategy and finding you a platform to execute on it is a first step.  Next is measuring the results!  It takes 10 minutes to build a custom report in Google Analytics that will provide you with:
  1. Popular content on your blog and the conversions it lead to.
  2. Keywords your blog is being found for and the conversions it leads to.
Keyword and Conversion tracking in Google Analytics
By measuring our traffic and conversions, we know exactly how conversions are developing by our web visitors.  We have goals set on each of our calls to action, See the spike in goals on November 17th?  That was our recent webinar!  More webinars will be coming!

Our staff knows what to blog about, when to blog about it, and how to integrate other marketing strategies to fully leverage blogging.  Does your blogging "expert" do that for you?

If not, fire them.



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We just wrapped up a marketing meeting to recap what happened last week and throughout November with some of the campaigns we're running. I love being able to see what our blog and website visitors are really looking for- because it so often goes against what we expect.

While our Blogging's Role in SEO and Social Media whitepaper is our most popular piece, we were shocked at how many people have been reading our Blogging and Email whitepaper.

blogging and email whitepaper

You never know how one week will change from the last, but I really think that as more businesses incorporate a blogging platform into their marketing plan, they want to integrate the blog content wherever they can. Doug Karr , VP of Blogging Evangelism, is always working on clever new tricks to take our blog content further. One of his latest creations was a tricked-out new way to display our last posts in the signature of our emails. This shows everyone you contact day-in and day-out what you've been writing in your blogs... And all you have to do is press send.

Now that's integration, baby!







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Seeking Alpha has a post by Peter Cooper which addresses whether the recent traffic surge seen by finance blogs is sustainable.  Noting that traffic on his own blog has increased tenfold since the summer, Cooper comments on the limitations of blog content reliability and then wonders if mainstream financial publications should make some sort of commitment to hosting blogs of their own.

The reason he gives for the traffic increase is credible:
The response time of conventional news services, and even the financial newswires like Bloomberg is simply too slow in highly volatile markets. A humble blogger close to the information and a PC can deliver a faster service.
I think that this hunger for more indepth and up-to-date information has been out there for a while.  In 2007, I found myself hitting the sites on the financial blogosphere, Seeking Alpha included, for a couple of reasons. 
  • My employer at the time was trying to secure deals with corporations which were in a state of shareholder turmoil.  This helped my coworker and I get some perspective on whether the deals were likely to go through.  We wound up doing a better job of predicting where the deals would go than our upper management.
  • My job search included several publicly traded companies.  Some of them were in the financial services sector, with exposure to the subprime meltdown.  This helped me understand why some potential employers were being loopy in their hiring process, and it even saved me from accepting an offer from a company that was turning toxic.
In each case, blog posts gave me the information necessary to construct a narrative about the raw numbers, like stock prices and earnings, from which I could make an informed decision.

If journalism is the first draft of history, then blogging is closer to the scrawlings of the reporter's notebook.  In some cases it's raw and tentative, but when balanced against multiple sources, the noise usually gets filtered out, and you're left with a mental model that has greater depth than the short blurbs delivered by the wire services.  In times of uncertainty, that kind of understanding is truly valuable.  That's a lesson that mainstream journalism needs to understand as it tries to adapt to a changing market for information.



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When it comes to evaluating corporate blogging as a tool for customer acquisition and retention, support for reader comments brings about anxiety in some business decisions makers.

They dread the thought of a dissatisfied customer using the feature to leave unflattering remarks about the organization.  Some have gone so far as to ask whether we can set up a blog network that does not accept comment submissions at all.

Several of us at Compendium have written on the topic, making the case that comments should be embraced, rather than feared.  A quick sift through the posts turned up the following list:
If you are one of those commentophobic business leaders who hasn't been swayed by our posts, perhaps an independent voice can help to close the deal.  Yesterday, eWeek ran a story, written by Nathan Eddy, titled "Six Tips to Build Your Brand".  Tip 3 talks about using social media to get comments directly from your customers.  Quoting an excerpt from that story, which cites What's Next Blog author BL Ochman:
And no matter how you cultivate feedback, Ochman says it’s absolutely critical, even if the feedback is negative. “Companies are afraid: What if they say something bad?” she says. “You should be so lucky that someone tells you what they don’t like, because most of the time they walk out the door and they never come back.”
When you have a chance to directly engage your customers, you have a chance to win people over, even those you might be on the verge of losing.



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I saw this quote today that's totally appropriate for our thinking around Corporate Blogging and Search.....

"There will still be people out there buying
cars, and the trick will be to identify them
and what triggers them to purchase."

-Ian Beavis, executive client services director, Carat, a part
of Aegis Group, as quoted in AdWeek, October 13, 2008


I want to turn this great quote around just a little bit and say that the tick is to have those buyers identify you.

In tough economic times (or anytime frankly) businesses have to compete hard for every opportunity.  If you are selling hardware or cars or even a lawyer selling legal services…  your prospects are starting with a search.  They are out there telling you they’re interested in your product or service.

What the marketer has to do is listening…..and I mean listening EVERYWHERE.   Old SEO was all about your top 10 keywords.  PPC was all about hundreds to thousands of identified keywords.  If 75% or more of the clicks on a search engine results page happens in the organic side, doesn't it make sense to target all those PPC terms organically?

Widespread blogs for business are the only way to accomplish this.



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Traditional marketers tend to shy away from new communication or marketing channels, and may not care to understand why blogs and business are mentioned in the same sentence. 

Don't let this happen to your business or marketing department.

As much as I am an advocate of business blogging, I also understand the difficulties that Marketing Directors face when internally selling a new concept, or misunderstood technology.  I think the answer may be to focus on the term "content marketing" instead of "business blogging" or "corporate blogging."  Our marketing department (which is a talented bunch) would probably fight me on this, but I think the word blog can push people further away from the results that a blog actually drives.

I read a press release today from the Blog Squad today, and co-founder Patsi Krakoff said it perfect.

“This new style of marketing is becoming extremely popular on the Web because it focuses on the reader, either by informing them, entertaining them, or by creating community relationships,” states Dr. Krakoff.

“The key is authenticity. Readers aren’t interested in the hype you see in TV commercials. When a business or professional publishes on the web, they must connect with customers in a way best done through writing valuable content that rings true,” she adds.

Content marketing allows you to relate with customers in a more meaningful way.  People have grown more and more cynical to mass advertising messages, or clear PR spin.  In a Web 2.0 world, it's never been more important to listen to customers, and join the conversation.  What makes them tick?  What are the problems they are facing, and how can you help them?  Whether it's a small business blog, or a Fortune 500 blog like Southwest Airlines, content marketing digs deeper than a display ad. 

Don't put something flashy in front of my face.  Chances are you'll annoy me more than you'll get my attention.  Instead, provide me with interesting, compelling content that builds my trust and interests me enough to explore your organization's products or services.



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We are growing quickly and need some more business development people to help us handle all of our inbound leads.   Corporate Blogging is hot because in it marketers have a tool that not only has high ROI, but equally high engagement.  If you know anyone who is looking to start a great career with a software as a service company serving business large and small...please have them contact us.

Business Development Manager

A Business Development Manager identifies, manages, and closes new business opportunities for Compendium Software.

A Business Development Manager must be articulate, persuasive, and able to develop and close a large pipeline of business within a short period of time. In addition, the Business Development Manager must be a self-starter who can roll up his or her sleeves and implement key selling initiatives.  

Responsibilities include:

•    Manage sales planning, forecasting, and analysis activities within our internal CRM system
•    Manage sales opportunities throughout the sales cycle, with online demos, phone calls, email communications, and more.
•    Maintain high activity level with prospects.
•    Generate additional business opportunities through dedicated prospecting and cold-calling.
•    Meet and exceed all quarterly and annual sales goals.

Qualifications:

•    Excellent oral and written communication skills.
•    Thorough understanding of MS Office applications and Internet.
•    Ability to work independently in a fast pace, rapid change environment.
•    Receptiveness to local and national travel.
•    Ability to negotiate skillfully in tough situations.
•    High energy level, enthusiasm, and passion for the business.

Send resumes to Ali Sales, ali@compendiumblogware.com.



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Vontoo, Compendium Blogware, Voice Messaging, Corporate Blogging SoftwareI was happy to see some great press today from my friend Dustin Sapp, managing partner for data-driven voice messaging software company Vontoo.   Dustin&Vontoo have a soft spot in my heart, because the were the first customer ever for Compendium Blogware.

More importantly, my respect for Dustin comes from his vision and courage in starting Vontoo in the first place.  A lot of times we talk about Entrepenurship in terms of creating a new market.   Perhaps the hardest thing to do is add reall innovation to something that everyone else thinks is old and tired.  

Vontoo is the worlds only data-driven voice messaging company.   The idea is to first get permission (never unsolicited calls) and then set messages up using real human voices.   The key is to trigger those messages at the right time to the right people.

For example, we use Vontoo to remind people of our Corporate Blogging Webinars.  Typically we get 500-700 registrants for our webinars (like this Thursday with Doug Karr and I reviewing 200 blog content ideas)  Usually we wind up with about 20% of those registering actually attending the webinars.   Several months we tested a pre-webinar voice message from Vontoo.  Our attendence grew by 50% vs. and email reminder.   Now we use Vontoo for all of our Webinars and are looking for other areas.   Compendium will be testing a follow up voice message from a whitepaper download and we are considering Vontoo for our collections dept.

Anyway, great press Dustin...well deserved.




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The other day I had the opportunity to talk business blogging with my good friend Doug Karr and a couple other great panelists at an event for large company marketing folks called Confluence.   Erik Deckers put the event together and hosted us at a Comedy Club on Mass Ave.   I was really impressed with the quality of questions and the high level of engagement from this group of mainly non-bloggers. 

In attendance were marketers from Lawyers offices, Agricultural companies and even big Pharmaceutical Corporate types, all looking to learn blogging best practices.   It's clear that there is a growing trend to learn more about how to best use blogging software as part of a legitimate and effective marketing strategy.





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I saw a post over at businessblogs.us which warns of the risk of a corporate blog turning into a splog, a blog that's just plain spammy.  Quoting the author:
Because sometimes corporate blogs and the bloggers that write them are very short sighted. Writing every blog post as a sales pitch for a product or service. Ultimately becoming one big spam blog. Which does just the opposite of what it’s supposed to do for your readers. Instead of turning them into loyal customers, it sends them back to the search engines to look for what they really came for.
This is a valid point.  One of the danger points for blogs and business is treating each blog post as a chance to make a hard sell.  People are smart, and they can sense when they are being sold to.  People are repulsed by this in real life, so you can imagine how well it works when a relationship can be terminated with the ease of clicking on the Close button on a web browser window.

The author asks the reader who is in charge of his or her corporate blogging initiative and argues that it should be in the hands of the customer service team, not the advertising folks.  Here at Compendium, we take that approach one step further, giving every employee an individual blog.  That includes sales, marketing, client success, and even the techies like me.

I do my share of talking about the ways our product can address a customer's needs, but I also spend a lot time talking about other things, such as current events in the technology world, issues that arise in the blogging community, and matters that impact the development of our application. 

It's my goal that someone stumbling across my posts will realize that the people involved in development are dedicated to building a reliable and usable product.  We're not just selling software as a service, we are selling a culture and a team that will help meet our customers' goals.



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After reading a blog post written by Guy Kawasaki called "How to Change People's Attitude," really got me thinking ..... we really can change peoples attitudes!!!

The article started out by describing a study that was done in Hawaii about a room service attendant who repeatedly confirmed hotel guest’s dinner order by asking them several times whether they were sure or what they ordered and by the need they were questioning whether or not they really wanted what they has previously ordered. Because the attendant questioned their first choice it made them second guess themselves.

This got me to really think about it … Can we really change someone’s mind?  Can we apply this to writing a blog post.  I believe we can – when you’re writing your business blog you could repeated ask your readers a question – forcing them to think about that answer – then in turn force them to think about their opinion.

There’s no right or wrong way to write a post so try to change someone’s opinion and see if you agree with this article.  There were several other studies talked about in this post, but you’ll have to read it yourself and form your own opinion – or do you agree with ME!!

Challenge: When writing your next corporate blog post see if you can change someone’s attitude!! Can you do it?



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Law Firms should be participating in business blogging because as consultants Lawyers have a need to build credibility.  Blogs help tell stories and at the end of the day, potential clients convert based on how much the lawyers experience matches up to my specific problem. A typical lawyer website is all about the lawyer...it's basically just another form of lawyer advertising that does't look or act any different than the Law Firm down the street. 

But by incorporateing blogging best practices and actually telling stories about cases and clients over time, two great things happen.   First you rank highly in the search engines on various topics...that SEO benefit helps with attracting new clients and lowers the average customer acquisition cost.   People do Attorney Search almost anytie they have a problem...this is why Attorney Marketing through blogs is such a critical tactic.

Blogs also convert.  One Attorney we work with has a dedicated phone number on his blogs.  This lawyer spent 5 months tracking that number compared to his Yellow Page Advertising...and at the end of that five months he dropped the Yellow Pages.

Corporate Blogging works for Law Firms.






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If you are thinking about starting a corporate blogging program (or if you are already doing a business blogging program), here are 3 things you should be paying attention to:

1. Can you get people to your company blogs?

Well, duh. Of course that's important. Without people showing up, how will you get anyone to take the next step?

There are a couple key things to pay attention to here:
  • Search engine rankings (the higher the better typically)
  • Number of unique visitors (and where are they coming from? Any basic analytics breakdown should show you).

2. Can you keep people on your business blogs?

You'll have a really good idea by looking at these two metrics:

  • Average read time
  • Average bounce rate
If your bounce rate is over 90%, that might be a bad thing. I say "might" because your blogging goal should be to move someone on to a next step. If your readers are so compelled by what you are talking about and want to move to your call-to-action within a few seconds, then great! The reality is that this is not going to happen. The best way to benchmark here is by looking at your corporate website stats.

3. Can you move visitors onto the next step?

It's great to have people reading your blog -- but unless you're a publisher, you don't make any money based on people spending 60 minutes reading about you and your company. That's why you want to move online blog visitors onto the next step.

The metrics that will tell you whether or not you succeed are simple:

  • Clicks on the CTA
  • Leads generated from the blogs!
So those are my top 3...what are yours?



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