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Hi! I'm Marty Bird. My role is to ensure you have the best possible service and support, enabling you to use our blogging application most effectively. I'll be posting about best practices, client success stories, and some tips to help you overcome some common hurdles. Client success is not a one-way street however. I'll be counting on you to tell me what's working and what's not working so we can continually advance our software solution to best fit your needs. |
Listening to a teleseminar today with Seth Godin promoting his new book, Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?, corporate blogging was mentioned a few times. Others on the panel were Dan Pink, Rich Sloan and Debbie Weil and the conference attracted over 2,000 listeners, according to the organizers.Back to corporate blogging, Seth mentioned something that I took away from the call - and that is when you start blogging, your blog is going to change you - you realize you have to say something worthwhile, something that will be worthy of reading, something remarkable. Seth reiterated that remarkable means "worth remarking about." (This may be review for those of you that follow Seth.)
As a corporate blogger, you have to set yourself apart and set your products apart. Isn't this what marketing is all about? Seth's point was when you start blogging, you suddenly realize you are talking to humans, real people that may visit your blog and read your words. So you better have something worthwhile to read. Just like you better have something worthwhile to sell to your customers. Then as your readership grows, you have to sustain that level of uniqueness that attracted people to your blog in the first place, just like you need to continue to innovate in your given field. Does your business blog continue to innovate along with your marketing programs and your products and your company?
I found the seminar to be worth my time by simply reminding me of those points, and now that blogging is part of marketing, blogging benefits you and your company when you are remarkable.
I was just speaking to one our our success managers about the ability to measure. Yes, we can measure everything. We set an expectation with our employees early-on that we set goals, track results, and check progress to help manage our business. Our business consists of employees, customers, and of course "the company." We set goals for all three areas. Let's talk customers:
Setting goals for our customers may sound tricky, but we pull the rabbit out of the hat by focusing our clients first on their overall goals, then remind them how corporate blogging fits in. All of our clients are blogging for a purpose, and going back to that purpose gets our customers right back on track. More specific goals are then set; a simple one is post frequency. We know a direct relationship exists between frequently updated content and search engine rank. For enterprise blogs, content contributors must be involved in the process and understand the overall blogging goals the company has set. If you don't have engaged employees adding content to your blog on a regular basis, certainly the ability to meet your goals will slip away.
Lesson: keep your employee bloggers engaged, set goals, share successes and keep them involved in the business. It is their content, after all, that plays a large role in the success of your business blog.
Setting goals for our customers may sound tricky, but we pull the rabbit out of the hat by focusing our clients first on their overall goals, then remind them how corporate blogging fits in. All of our clients are blogging for a purpose, and going back to that purpose gets our customers right back on track. More specific goals are then set; a simple one is post frequency. We know a direct relationship exists between frequently updated content and search engine rank. For enterprise blogs, content contributors must be involved in the process and understand the overall blogging goals the company has set. If you don't have engaged employees adding content to your blog on a regular basis, certainly the ability to meet your goals will slip away.Lesson: keep your employee bloggers engaged, set goals, share successes and keep them involved in the business. It is their content, after all, that plays a large role in the success of your business blog.
In what is developing into a series of posts about employee blogging, today I am recommending your company have a blogging champion. This person is in charge of your blogging efforts, and motivates others to continue adding great content to your company blog.Since our success management staff speaks to our clients on a regular basis, one of the blogging tips we're recommending includes this idea of having a blogging champion. Simply an email reminder at a certain time and frequency that shares blogging success, some simple blogging best practices, and even some ideas to concentrate on to further your organization's blogging goals is all it takes to keep blogging at a high awareness level in your company.
Your valuable content providers - your employees - are very busy and don't need to be burdened with too much information. And certainly easy to use blogging software is a must. A blogging champion should know the complete blogging strategy and work with other organizational leaders to ensure the strategy meshes and complements current marketing initiatives.
So, do you have a blogging champion?
In my last post I mentioned how you can get to know your employees by inviting them to blog. I didn't get a chance to explore further the added benefit of increasing employee morale through blogging. Taking a quick tour through our office and stopping at Ali's desk, I mentioned that since our employee base has grown substantially over the past couple of months, so has the number of blogs within our blog network. Ali, not lacking in enthusiasm about blogging, exclaimed "I know! I can't believe the amount of content that is being added to our company blogs."
Since Ali is our champion of blogging best practices, she has put in place the opportunity for all of us to blog 2 or 3 times a week. It's no surprise our employees feel more closely connected to the company, and to our clients. When we are all using the blogging tools we sell and support, we see the updates to the software and can better support our product and address any blogging problems our clients might have.
Having everyone blogging in our company also helps to close any gap that may exist between departments, and as we grow, ensuring an open channel of communication becomes increasingly important. Since we're now all bloggers, we have an immediate connection. I can't recommend enough that you consider the benefits of blogging within your company. Not only do you see benefits through search engine optimization, but also your employees have a higher level of morale by contributing to the success of the organization.
Since Ali is our champion of blogging best practices, she has put in place the opportunity for all of us to blog 2 or 3 times a week. It's no surprise our employees feel more closely connected to the company, and to our clients. When we are all using the blogging tools we sell and support, we see the updates to the software and can better support our product and address any blogging problems our clients might have.
Having everyone blogging in our company also helps to close any gap that may exist between departments, and as we grow, ensuring an open channel of communication becomes increasingly important. Since we're now all bloggers, we have an immediate connection. I can't recommend enough that you consider the benefits of blogging within your company. Not only do you see benefits through search engine optimization, but also your employees have a higher level of morale by contributing to the success of the organization.
We've added a few new faces to our staff lately. And, since our days are often packed with the many responsibilities inherent to a small start-up, we may not get a chance to get to know these new employees as quickly as we would like.
Since we're all about corporate blogging, everybody on staff hones their writing skills and contributes to our SEO goals by adding content to their blog a few times each week. I finally had a chance to read through our staff blogs. Wow! What a great learning experience! Our employees are very creative bloggers and all have a take on how blogging can help an organization to reach its goals. I’m very impressed and it makes me wonder why some are hesitant to open the blogging doors to their employees. As an employer or a manager of staff, you instantly not only learn more about your people, you get the SEO benefit of their frequent, relevant content. Additionally, as one of those "employee bloggers," I find it rewarding to be able to express myself via blogging. It’s great exercise for my mind!
Links to our staff blogs:
Shawna Mullen
Since we're all about corporate blogging, everybody on staff hones their writing skills and contributes to our SEO goals by adding content to their blog a few times each week. I finally had a chance to read through our staff blogs. Wow! What a great learning experience! Our employees are very creative bloggers and all have a take on how blogging can help an organization to reach its goals. I’m very impressed and it makes me wonder why some are hesitant to open the blogging doors to their employees. As an employer or a manager of staff, you instantly not only learn more about your people, you get the SEO benefit of their frequent, relevant content. Additionally, as one of those "employee bloggers," I find it rewarding to be able to express myself via blogging. It’s great exercise for my mind!
Links to our staff blogs:
Shawna Mullen
Have you noticed the proliferation of live blogging? Maybe I'm just paying more attention now and take more notice to the live blogs posted from the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) or the Detroit Auto Show, the keynote address at MacWorld 2008, and more than ever at sporting events like NFL playoff games.
How might this apply to corporate blogging? Maybe you're at an industry conference or trade-show as an attendee. If you were attending a conference and were assigned to post a synopsis from the back row or between sessions, wouldn't you pay much closer attention to the content? Would you pay attention in a different way? Live blogging would benefit your corporate bloggers, encouraging them to think as a journalist, sharpening their listening skills while determining how the session they are attending fits into your organization's needs or the needs of the industry. They might even ask questions and listen to other's questions and comments in a new way.
Live blogging in this sense then engages the blogger in a new way. Adding the responsibility of live blogging to their attendance at a conference also populates your organization's blog with relevant content, informs the blog's readers of the latest information coming out of the conference, and serves as a journal of notes for the employee to assemble for use in further decision making.
So, yes, live blogging can fit in to your organization, but don't try it from the board room!
How might this apply to corporate blogging? Maybe you're at an industry conference or trade-show as an attendee. If you were attending a conference and were assigned to post a synopsis from the back row or between sessions, wouldn't you pay much closer attention to the content? Would you pay attention in a different way? Live blogging would benefit your corporate bloggers, encouraging them to think as a journalist, sharpening their listening skills while determining how the session they are attending fits into your organization's needs or the needs of the industry. They might even ask questions and listen to other's questions and comments in a new way.
Live blogging in this sense then engages the blogger in a new way. Adding the responsibility of live blogging to their attendance at a conference also populates your organization's blog with relevant content, informs the blog's readers of the latest information coming out of the conference, and serves as a journal of notes for the employee to assemble for use in further decision making.
So, yes, live blogging can fit in to your organization, but don't try it from the board room!
Did you see the article pointing out that several of the presidential candidate's web sites do not follow common practices for search engine optimization? That really came as surprise to me since you'd think the campaigns would have plenty of resources (i.e. money) to make sure they'll be found on search engines. This brings up the point that even those with limited resources can be found on the web, leveling the playing field for businesses of all sizes.
If you're just starting out in business, you likely have a web site. You'd be well advised to have a blog as well, since blogs naturally follow best practices for search engine optimization. Your frequent posts on the topic of your business, your products and your services helps you win the search just like those "big companies" that may have way more resources than you do to devote to your web presence.
And you know by now that Compendium's blogging solution makes it even easier for you to get your company noticed. We have a built-in administrative layer that opens the door for many of your employees to be content providers. The more, the better!
If you're just starting out in business, you likely have a web site. You'd be well advised to have a blog as well, since blogs naturally follow best practices for search engine optimization. Your frequent posts on the topic of your business, your products and your services helps you win the search just like those "big companies" that may have way more resources than you do to devote to your web presence.
And you know by now that Compendium's blogging solution makes it even easier for you to get your company noticed. We have a built-in administrative layer that opens the door for many of your employees to be content providers. The more, the better!
Trying to keep up with the latest marketing concepts? You might find they're not as new as you thought. Marketing guru Shel Israel claims to have used the term conversational marketing over 10 years ago, referring to a way to cut through the hype of what was to become the buzz of the dot-com era. He stated that customers would respond better to simple conversation than "in-your-face" marketing that seemed to prevail at that time (and still does). How is conversational marketing implemented? Through people in your organization reaching out through various forms of social media like enterprise blogging, wikis, social networking sites and by using video stories. This allows you to reach the masses without shouting at them. Of course "conversation" implies completing the feedback loop by listening - all forms of conversational marketing must include a way for the customer to communicate back to you. Is it time for you to start listening? Start the conversation with our easy to use blogging solution, then add a more personal element through video stories. Learn how some of Indiana’s brightest entrepreneurs are using video to start the conversation at http://indianaentrepreneur.tv/.
Looking for inspiration when planning your marketing strategies? Is your traditional marketing (read print, television, radio, mass marketing) not providing the connection to your customers you’re looking for? Have you finally convinced yourself and your superiors to try something new? You’ve read posts here regarding our blogging solution, and maybe you’re read about one of our customers, Carmen Commercial Real Estate. But did you know they’ve been using a variety of forms of marketing to connect to their customers including producing video stories through IndianaEntrepreneur.tv?
Produced and managed by Cantaloupe.TV, IEtv helps to provide access to Indiana’s inspirational entrepreneurs through creative, conversational videos designed specifically for viewing within blogs and company websites. Do you really need to look further for marketing inspiration? Add video to your blogging strategy and stop wondering why you aren’t connecting to your customers.
I'm very pleased to announce Lynsey Rosencrans as our new Associate Account Manager. Lynsey's main role is to help ensure customer success with our blogging tools. Lynsey comes to us with prior professional experience as an account executive with a public relations firm and has worked directly with customers in other professional capacities.
Her prior experience, great attitude, customer service and technical skills will serve her well at Compendium Blogware. Please join me in welcoming Lynsey! Contact Lynsey at lynsey@compendiumblogware.com or 317-536-6042.
Our goal is to provide our customers with a continually improving product, and we are imroving the blogging experience by phasing in new features over the next couple of releases. Many of these features have been developed based on customer feedback. Some new changes include a tabbed layout showing recent posts and drafts. Other new features include preview, file upload and image upload.
My dad, a long-time blogger, runs a golf course and blogs about the happenings during the day from the 19th hole. He posts scores, announces upcoming events, and uses it as a solution to communicate with his customers. He also posts photos and holds "guess who this is?" contests by posting a photo from a customer's younger days. He has a good following and his customers enjoy the blog.
My dad is passionate not only about golfing, but also about politics. He uses the same blog to post his opinion on the current state of affairs in Iraq, within the political parties, and comments on the endless fodder the media provides. Sometimes his golfing customers don't fully appreciate his political views, so I have advised my dad to completely separate his political posts from his golfing posts. He has eventually learned to do that through his current blogging solution, but wouldn't that be much easier if the solution was automatic?
That's what the Compendium Blogware solution can provide, automatic organization of content. Your bloggers concentrate on writing posts and behind the scenes the blogging tools do the heavy lifting. Then, by organizing this content, his customers can be directed to the blog that is most appropriate to them.
My dad is passionate not only about golfing, but also about politics. He uses the same blog to post his opinion on the current state of affairs in Iraq, within the political parties, and comments on the endless fodder the media provides. Sometimes his golfing customers don't fully appreciate his political views, so I have advised my dad to completely separate his political posts from his golfing posts. He has eventually learned to do that through his current blogging solution, but wouldn't that be much easier if the solution was automatic?
That's what the Compendium Blogware solution can provide, automatic organization of content. Your bloggers concentrate on writing posts and behind the scenes the blogging tools do the heavy lifting. Then, by organizing this content, his customers can be directed to the blog that is most appropriate to them.
I'm currently managing a blogging solution using another platform (OK, it's WordPress) for my family. I have had this account open for some time now and I'm starting to think I had better move it to Compendium. Why? The goal of the family blog is to enable as many authors as possible to easily post content, and that's not fun using WordPress. As the administrator, I set up an author account and when that author signs in to WordPress, they have too many options to tempt them away from the true purpose, writing content. With the Compendium Blogware blogging solution, users author content without the distractions that can take them away from great, keyword-rich blog posts. Should I put the change up for a family vote?
This falls under the category “every organization in the world should be blogging.”
Today I met with Legene White from Indiana University. She is the director of alumni affairs for the department of Telecommunications at Indiana University. Our conversation turned to blogging and how college campuses could benefit. Think of it! Here is a short list we came up with: Recruiting, fund raising, class management, departmental promotion, varsity sports teams, intramural sports, student associations, fraternities and sororities, alumni associations . . . should I go on? All of these organizations under the college campus umbrella could have multiple bloggers publishing content that would ultimately benefit the university.
Turning specifically to recruiting, what better way for a potential student to find out about campus life than through a university run blog that features current students writing about their experiences?
This post is part of a regular series of client success stories.
Blogging for members, media and government leaders
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce launched their blog on September 20 and within 10 days, appeared on the first page of Google. Wow! How did that happen? According to Conor Yunits, communications manager, “We had a good plan ahead of time and content lined up to add to our blogs upon our launch to the press in September. Over the first few weeks we added that content, making sure it was relevant to our topics.” Try for yourself: To see Conor’s page one Google results, search Boston Chamber blog, Boston networking events or Boston public policy to see the blogs appear.
For more about our blogging software and to learn how blogging for search can help your organization's goals, be sure to visit the Compendium Blogware website and request a demo.
A priority for many is to improve search engine ranking, and you’ve made the right choice by blogging to help reach that goal. Search engine rank is measurable, and we track and communicate success to our clients individually, as well as feature clients in email newsletters and white papers.Keys to Success
Content, content, content! The more the better. Bloggers from your organization (as many as possible) provide keyword-rich, highly relevant post titles and text.
Consistency and Frequency: Regularly updated content shows search engines something is happening on your site. Search engines favor sites that are updated frequently.
Compendium Blogware: Get this – your organization provides frequent content from as many bloggers as possible – and Compendium Blogware automatically organizes and multiplies that content across relevant compended blogs, greatly increasing the value of your blog to search engines. The more compended blogs you have the better; you want to cast a wide net to reach as many searchers as possible. Most often it is one or more of the compended blogs that win the search.
You Enjoy the Benefits
Performing well in search gets highly qualified traffic to your blog where personal, human voices represent your company. A measurable call to action from your blog helps you to reach your ultimate business goal.
This post is part of a regular series of client success stories.
Chris Carmen’s enthusiasm for his commercial real estate business carried over to his blogging efforts. Chris came to Compendium Blogware bubbling over with ideas on how to improve his business through blogging. He desired to set his Indianapolis real estate services company apart from the competition through blogging. Just getting started in September 2007, Chris is very happy with his search engine results, appearing on page one! Search Google: Indianapolis Office Relocation, Indianapolis Tenant Representative, Indianapolis Business Growth Incentives, Indianapolis Facility Relocation.
How does he do it? Consistent and relevant posting to his blog plus the power of the automatic organization of that content to carefully titled compended blogs. Find out more about Chris’s company via his website or blog.
I was meeting with a new client today and we were talking about his goals for blogging. This client is a manufacturer’s representative and sells within a given territory. As he travels this territory he has developed good relationships with his clients and wants to reach out to them on a more frequent basis. Admittedly, his folksy charm helps retain those relationships and he wants to carry that charm through to his blog.
Our conversation then turned to his goals for performing in search. While this is important to him, winning search is not his primary goal. As I explained how beneficial his blogging will be for search, his understanding increased and the light bulb turned on.
Blogging for business truly does get you two for one. If your primary goal is reaching current customers through a more personal channel, start a blog. At the same time, you’ll be blogging for search and exposing more people to your business.
Interested in finding out more about our easy to use blogging software? Contact us and request a demonstration. We’ll be glad to assist you, whether your goal is to improve customer relationships, search engine optimization, or both!
After spending the last two days at the ExactTarget user conference I can see very clearly that corporations are hungry for effective ways to reach their customers. Compendium had a booth in the vendor expo where I was able to explain the benefits of our enterprise blogging software. Attendees including those representing advertising agencies, banks, the health care industry, publishers and retailers (to name a few) showed great interest when visiting the booth for more information. As suspected, many companies “get it” but are not sure how to get started. Our blogging software certainly provided the solution!
We also took this occasion to introduce our new website as well as our refreshed logo (we’re now using “blogware” instead of “software” in our name to more clearly define our software as a service model). The most valuable experience for me was to listen to the needs of the various marketing professionals, learn something about their company and be able to help them fit blogging into their overall strategy for improving their business. How does blogging fit into your business?
We also took this occasion to introduce our new website as well as our refreshed logo (we’re now using “blogware” instead of “software” in our name to more clearly define our software as a service model). The most valuable experience for me was to listen to the needs of the various marketing professionals, learn something about their company and be able to help them fit blogging into their overall strategy for improving their business. How does blogging fit into your business?
