Hello there! My name is Chantelle Flannery and I'm a Client Success Manager here at Compendium Blogware. My main responsibility is to assist our clients with their needs to keep writing fresh and innovative blog posts.
I go home every night to a caring and loving family that consists of my husband, Nate, and my son (or dog), Dave. Nate works for the Horizon League in Indianapolis, directing all facets of their online video streaming platform (www.HorizonLeagueNetwork.tv), while Dave is just over two years old and spends most of his days lounging around in our bed.
Through this blog I hope you will get to know me better both personally and professionally. I strive to show our clients how easy it is to publish a quick post that will have the desired effect.
Sometimes it is hard to come up with content when you are close to the subject matter that you should be writing about. I often find myself talking to clients about everyday activities that they are engaged in and I point out how easily they can become blog posts.
It takes a little bit of time to start identifying what would make for an interesting blog post but once you get a hang of identifying content it becomes part of your everyday routine.
Here is a list of blog post ideas that I recently put together for a musician. I removed his name but will perhaps add it back in or at the very least do a follow up post when he starts to use these content ideas. (See right there while doing my job I uncovered something else I could be blogging about - it's that easy!)
Blog Post Ideas for a Musician:
CD Releases
You have 3 CDs so you have a ton of content that can easily be written. Even if it’s an older album you still want to sell it right? LINK TO YOUR PRODUCT IN YOUR POSTS
Talk about the cover art
Talk about the other artists that are a part of the project – write a post for each
Every song should have a post with a buy now linking to the CD
Release parties: where when who should come
Post release party: get a flip and record a short review from an audience member makes for an easy video post
Reviews – every time a review is published a follow up blog post should be published too with a buy now link to your CD
Shows
You have a regular gig right? Every week…. That’s at least one new post a week
Pre show info
Playlists from the show
Ask fans if there is something that they want you to play during a show - have them comment back to you about it
Post show
Media Coverage
Every time there is a newspaper or magazine article about you blog about it and link out to the full article. Heck even ask them to link to your blog when they are writing the piece about you!
I put together this list in about 5 minutes just from looking at the artists website, MySpace page, and Googling their name. Now think about how many more things the artist could come up with if they spent 5 more minutes on it.
Content is limitless but it really comes down to the amount of effort the blogger is willing and wanting to put into it.
What is the key to a successful blog? One word.... Content.
Content is key to creating a successful blog.
Most of the time there is content available to you that can easily be resused. For example most of the content in this post was originally apart of and email send.
Want to learn about other places where you can find content?
We have an upcoming Webinar that's 100% applicable to your blogging strategy: Make Blog Content Work for You. Get the webinar details here!
At the Webinar you'll learn:
How to repurpose content.
Content creation ideas.
How to measure blogging ROI.
Spots are filling fast make sure you reserve your spot today. Can't commit now - that's ok - register to receive the replay.
In the past clients have relied solely on our Client Success Managers for product support. As we grow as a company we are making adjustments based on your feedback to better meet your needs. For all product related questions please submit them directly to the Helpdesk in order to receive the quickest response time.
Your Client Success Managers will continue to be a resource for you to discuss your blogging program success.
Your feedback is important to us so please share your thoughts with us!
The conversion of a blog visitor to a prospect is possible through a clear Call-to-Action (CTA). A CTA is asking your visitor to do something that is actionable to/with the blog site owner. For example, a CTA that invites a reader to download a white paper, after giving their contact information, is an action that a reader takes. Once the reader has converted based on a CTA, the responsibility for the nurturing of that reader, who is now a prospect, falls on the shoulders of the blog owner.
Cardinal Rule(s) of Conversion
Offer a Call-to-Action (CTA)
Set a goal
Track results&measure success
Adjust and test
Increase your conversions with an effective Call-to-Action
Techniques for an effective Call-to-Action:
Give a deadline for ordering
Advise of a price increase
Establish a trial/introductory period
Free gift
Demo
Offer an upgrade
Online offer only
Example Call-to-Action:
Join newsletter list
Obtain a white paper
Request contact by a representation
Increase engagement by:
Use action language to incite momentum
Always tell the reader exactly what you want them to do
Use more than just a simple hyperlink to bring attention to the conversion point
Use a pleasing design and images when possible
A maximum of two Calls-to-Action should be used at one time on the blog
Rotate the CTA, experiment with messaging and offerings to find the right fit for the blog readers
A CTA is step #1 of the conversion process. Step #2 is to track conversions
Tracking your conversions:
Create a unique landing page for the call to action
Ingrate tracking tools such as analytic programs and CRM tools
Ask clients how they found about you and if they have visited the blog
Information Flow
Decision
Path for Reader:
Find Blog
Click Call-to-Action
Taken to landing page
Fill in form - submit
Sent to a thank you page
Receive follow up email/call
Information
flow for Blog Owner:
Find blog
Click CTA
Taken to
landing page
Filled in content on landing page submitted
Form information received via email or CRM
Follow up steps taken based on lead qualification process
On the Client Success Team we often talk with administrators about motivating their bloggers. I wanted to share a great example of how the compendium administrators have motivated our team. This week’s motivator (or bribery depends how you look at it) is to have everyone create a post today so that we get breakfast as a company tomorrow. We have about 30 bloggers on our platform and already today we have 13 posts up for the day. This is a fun (and relatively inexpensive) way to motivate your bloggers and really work as a united front to blog as a business.
In the end we must remember that we are blogging as a business to increase our customer acquisitions and lead generation by being found more easily in search results. My job as a member of the Client Success Team is to work with clients to develop a customer acquisition strategy for their blogging program. We start the processes off by talking about overarching goals and program expectations. Once we have established our goals every step we take is towards accomplishing these goals weather we are defining keywords or discussing content creation strategies.
A great deal of time is also spent discussing Calls To Action - after all this is what actually delivers the leads. Stay tuned for my next post where I will discuss CTAs in more detail.
Coolest thing about CompEraser is that their blog was recently named as a 2008 Honoree for LexisNexis Top 25 Blogs for Workers' Compensation. Bill Reynolds has done a fantastic job of writing quality content on a very consistent basis.
Creating content for Indianapolis Tennis Championships could seem challenging because the event only happens once a year...however the bloggers have come up with some very creative ways to get content up on a regular basis. One of my favorite posts is the Insert Caption Here posts that they put up every few weeks.
Widen has been cranking out quality content (epically on the weekends) during the blogging tournament to ensure their narrow victory several weeks in a row. They have created a fictional blogging regular named Dr DAM (Digital Asset Management) that answers questions for readers. It’s a very unique concept that has been working out well for the Widen team.
Google Alerts is a great way for you to stay up on the conversations that are taking place about your company and industry on the internet.
Google Alerts notifies you by email when
the search term you choose is found on the Web. Not only is this service easy to set up but best of all it is free.
Fill in the form with the appropriate information starting with the topic you would like to receive alerts for. Some great alerts include your company name, company figure head names, product names, and industry topics.
Select "comprehensive" as the type of alert to
ensure you get a message when your search term appears anywhere on the web (websites, blogs, news sites, videos, or Google Groups).
Add your email address and click submit.
Via email you will receive confirmation emails for each alert you set up. You must confirm that you want to receive the alerts before they will be delivered.
The end of week 5 marks the end of the competition for three more teams. Each of the teams have battled hard to get to the final six.
Tampa Bay & Company consistency pushed and insensitive their bloggers to be the best bloggers they could be throughout the tournament. It is sad to see them go from the tournament and you better bet that they are going to be one of the hardest teams to beat the next tournament.
R.O.Why! Marketing proved that consistant posting and quality content are key to a healthy blog. Throughout the compititon they gave their oponits a run for their money.
Gla Glah Shoes were just barely edged out in the 5th round losing out by a single post. They are also one of the newest clients participating in the tournament and proved that blogging can be an easy and fun team activity.
The final three teams are pitted against each other during this semi-final round. The two teams with the most posts will move on to the final round and only one will be crowned the champion.
We are down to the final 3 teams with only one weeks of
competition remaining. You can view each of these company blogs by
clicking on the links below.
Posting continues to be strong by all teams. But we are down to the final 6 teams with only two weeks of
competition remaining. You can view each of these company blogs by
clicking on the links below.
Week three brought us several really close match ups with nail biting finishes. I expect this week to be just as exciting as we move into the 4th round of the tournament. Although it is has been a short week I fully expect teams to pick up the steam at the end of this week into the weekend. Remember you have until Sunday night!
We are down to the final 12 teams with only two weeks of competition remaining. You can view each of these company blogs by clicking on the links below.
Entering into the 3rd round of the Blogging Tournament - Content for the Crown we have seen some pretty close match-ups. Last week one of the most exciting match ups was between Widen and Baby Plus. Widen ended up just barely nudging out
Baby Plus with a narrow 32-29 win. Tied for second most posts last week with Baby Plus was Weiss Group with 29 posts.
I am glad to see that the competitive spirits are coming out of all of us. It is very important to note that once you really start to elevate the amount of content being added to the blogs you need to keep it consistent. Although this championship is designed to foster healthy competition, in the end it allows you to prove to yourself and your team that you are capable of creating valuable, relevant content on a weekly if not daily basis. So now that you have ramped up your content continue to move the bar up ... continue to challenge yourself. Last week we sent out a friendly reminder to blog with a link out to the article
10 Ways to Find 10 Minutes to Write. We had some great responses to this email and saw an overall lift in content creation for the day. One specific case I want to highlight for those of you that said I really don't have time ... I can't find 10 minutes today or this weekend to write a post. Gianni Lyle, of
Certain Software, found 10min to blog from his hospital bed. Now if that's not dedication!
Check out the tournament bracket
for the week and continue to work together to blog. Remember that even if you're no longer participating in the championship you still have your blogging goals to work towards. Please have fun with the tournament - use this as a tool internally to mobilize development.
We are almost to the halfway point in the first every Compendium Blogging Championship. As we near the finish line every minute matters because ever minute means a potential new post. Did you know that in the time you spend reading this post you could have already created a new post for your team?
In order to help everyone keep the final weeks of the tournament top of mind I have created a widget that is counting down to the crowning of the first Compendium Blogging Champion. Please add this widget to your blogs so that people can watch your progress as you move towards the finish line.
I also wanted to point out that this widget was created with a free service called Sprout Builder. At this years DEMO ‘08 conference, Sprout unveiled Sprout Builder, a platform that allows anyone to create – widgets, mashups, mini-sites, and other forms of interactive and distributable web content. To make your own widget go to www.sproutbuilder.com and sign up for an account today.
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!
The first week of the tournament brought some stiff competition between Intelex and Winning Workplaces. Winning Workplaces just edged out the competition and will now be facing Wilderness Voyageurs.
A great match up to watch out for this week will be between Widen and Baby Plus.
Weiss had the second most blog posts last week. Let's hope that they keep up the content creation during week two when they face off with Big League Tours. With our final match up from group A - Webinar Resources will compete against We Know Words.
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.
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.
Over the course of the tournament my blog will be the central hub of information and trash talking. Information about the contests rules and results will be posted on a daily basis. If you have questions please let me know by adding a comment to the blog. You did also hear me correctly … feel free to use my comments section to banter back and forth in the spirit of healthy competition.
We will be monitoring all blogs and comments to ensure that everyone is being a good sport. Any and all activities that are deemed unsportsmen like may result in a disqualification for the entire team from the competition. So play nice.
A field of over 100 companies will be participating in this falls Blogging Tournament – Content for the Crown. The companies will face off in a single elimination bracket over the course of the next 7 weeks. At the end of each week the total number of posts for each company will be compared and the team with the most posts will advance to the next round. Tie breaks will be broken by comparing the previous weeks post totals - going back as far a necessary in order to break the tie.
To find out whom you have to compete with check out the tournament bracket.
The first round of the tournament begins on Monday August 11th and lasts through the 17th of August.
Sometimes it is hard to come up with content when you are close to the subject matter that you should be writing about. I often find myself talking to clients about everyday activities that they are engaged in and I point out how easily they can become blog posts. 
The conversion of a blog visitor to a prospect is possible through a clear Call-to-Action (CTA). A CTA is asking your visitor to do something that is actionable to/with the blog site owner. For example, a CTA that invites a reader to download a white paper, after giving their contact information, is an action that a reader takes. Once the reader has converted based on a CTA, the responsibility for the nurturing of that reader, who is now a prospect, falls on the shoulders of the blog owner. 
On the Client Success Team we often talk with administrators about motivating their bloggers. I wanted to share a great example of how the compendium administrators have motivated our team. This week’s motivator (or bribery depends how you look at it) is to have everyone create a post today so that we get breakfast as a company tomorrow. We have about 30 bloggers on our platform and already today we have 13 posts up for the day. This is a fun (and relatively inexpensive) way to motivate your bloggers and really work as a united front to blog as a business. 
