Blogs to Business

Presented by:Rabeea Mannan

Sarah Farnaz Baqai

What is a Blog?

Web + Log = Blog

It is often thought as an online diary orjournal…….

But basically it an instant publishing tool anyone can use to add new content onto the web

It is also a….

• Collaborative space

• Breaking-news outlet

• Place for private thoughts

• A promotional gold mine

Formal Definition

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blog Versus..

• Website - Static pages of information or sales letters

• Newsletter - Information sent to inbox, drive action

• Forum - Conversation and interaction

Blogs combine elements of all of the above

Features of a Blog

• Details Posts • Feed (RSS) • Comments • Listing • Trackbacks • Sidebar Widgets • Blogroll • Social media share buttons

Why Blog?• 73.6% of North Americans are on the Internet

• 83% of Internet users watch videos online

• 49% of Internet users use a search engine each day

• 73% of Internet users read blogs

• Companies that blog:Monthly leads generated rise by 126%.Visitors rise by 55%.Have 97% more inbound links.Have 434% more indexed pages in search engine

Business Blog?

Wikipedia’s Definition of a business blog

A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals

Corporate Vs Personal Blogs• Blogs have become increasingly

popular and widespread among businesses

Known as a “Corporate Blog” • Corporate blogs are published by

organizations to reach many of its goals – Posts/comments easy to follow

due to centralized hosting and structured conversation threads.

– Used to generate CGC through introduction of new products/services, react to public criticisms, and provide customer assistance

• Approximately 12.8% of Fortune 500 Companies currently use corp. blogs-– Eg. Google, Dell, Coca-Cola,

McDonalds

Personal Blogger(19% of total)

Personal Blogger(19% of total)

Professional bloggers

(46% of total)

Professional bloggers

(46% of total)

Corporate Bloggers(12% of total)

Corporate Bloggers(12% of total)

Value of Corporate Blogging• Word of Mouth (WOM)

– It serves as a catalyst to drive consumers to engage, research and purchase

• Consumers becoming creators of CGC, presenting their personal experience and opinions about the brand

• 78% of respondents believe consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising - “ Nielsen Global Survey: Word-of-Mouth the Most Powerful Selling Tool Oct 2007”

• CGC Value is becoming a credible and authoritative basis for a purchase decision. – Online social network users were three times more likely to trust their

peers' opinions over advertising when making purchase decisions. ("Social Networking Sites: Defining Advertising Opportunities in a Competitive Landscape," JupiterResearch, March 2007)

• CGC is poised to have a greater impact on marketing goals in the near future.

Why Business Blogging?

“The way we use the web is shifting in a

fundamental way. Instead of primarily being

passive consumers of information, more and

more Internet users are becoming active

participants. Weblogs allow everyone to have

a voice.”

Technorati.com

Crowd-sourced content:

In Technorati’s list of the top 100 Blogs

(March 2009) 2 of the top Blogs worldwide were dedicated to

Apple, both are independent and not officially affiliated to

Apple:

24 The unofficial Apple Weblog (www.tuaw.com)

81 MacRumours (www.macrumours.com)

Increases Exposure

• Help increase brand recognition and may boost traffic to your website

• Corporate differentiation, leadership and authority.

• Display brand personality

• Increases Reach

Improves Search Engine Optimization

• Optimize for keywords• Search engines like Google

like sites that regularly update content

• With greater content, there may be increased benefits from the long tail of search

• Blogs act as “link bait” and thus increase traffic to your site

Opportunity for Market Research

• Obtain “free” market research – May give insight in to consumer likes/dislikes,

trends, expectations, etc, which the business can use to cater specifically to current and prospective customers.

Generates Dialogue

• Users may write and respond to blog posts, creating potential continuous dialogue

• Dialogue can be more informal, allowing businesses to “speak” more personably, which may increase trust in consumers

• Encourages feedback

Some Other Reasons

• To share company announcements

• Generates and captures new leads.

• Enhances one’s credibility with potential clients.

• Establish one’s expertise

• And above all….

IT’S CHEAP!

Measuring Blogs

Metric # 1 - Subscriptions

Metric # 2 – Page Views

Metric # 3 - Comments

• A good indicator of engagement• A way to listen to the market

Metric # 4 – Inbound Links

• Measure the SEO impact of the blog• Indicates Blog role’s in outside conversations

WAYS/KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL BLOGS

1. IDENTIFY TARGET PERSONAS

Your content pulls in your persona

Create the kind of online content that your buyers naturally gravitate to.

What Keywords Will Attract Your Personas?

Fill posts with them

Build an archive of content full of them

How We Pick Keywords: Keyword Grader

A word of caution

• Writing for your personas DOES NOT mean writing about the products and services you sell them

• Write about the things they want to learn about

2. Create a mix of posts

Plan a Mix of Posts

Basic, Everyday Posts

• How to posts

• Rich in keywords

• Get good at whipping them out

• Make sure they’re useful

Healthy, Thoughtful Posts

• Should establish your site as a thought leader in the industry

• Put time into them

• Don’t do too many

Big Blog Projects

• Lots of work

• Lots of links, discussion and attention

• Pick them well

Posts That Start Fires

• Make a bold statement

• Be prepared to defend yourself

• Lots of comments and links

• Too many of these posts could lose trust

The Sweet Stuff

• These posts make your blog fun

• A chance to poke fun at yourself

• Lots of traffic/links

• Often video, images

3. Write a great post

Tips for Post Structure

• Use Headings

• 500-800 words (or shorter!)

• Lists are OK (just not too many)

• 1 idea per post

• Always Add a Photo

Where Do You Get Ideas?

• Everywhere

• Keep a list

• When you learn something, flesh it out

• Check your email outbox!

• Ask your readers

Write Great Headlines

Write the headline before the article

• Imagine the reader won’t see the article

• Surprise people

• No spelling errors!

• Use your keywords

4. Sustain it

Pick a Publishing Schedule

• Once a week? Every Monday and Wednesday?

• Stick to it

• The goal is to build up a body of keyword-rich content (create an asset)

Different Ways of Doing Posts

• Email interviews

• Video interviews (conferences, office visitors, clients)

• Guest posts from people with similar blogs

• “Best of” lists

• “How we do it” posts

Should I Hire People?

• It depends.

• Pros:• You don’t have to do the work• You hire a “professional writer”

• Cons:• Nobody knows your business like you do• You don’t build your personal reputation• You don’t participate in the conversation

5. Spread it

Take Comments Seriously

• Make sure you comment back

• Find out who the people are

• Follow their links

• Subscribe to their blog, follow them on Twitter

Publish on Social Media• Post directly

• Post via twitterfeed.com automatically

• Post to your status

• Post automatically via a feed to your fan or profile page

• Also consider LinkedIn, other sites.

Where Do You Link to Your Blog?

• Your homepage

• Press releases

• Business cards

• Email signatures

Engage People; Stay on Their Radar

• Write posts that link to or follow up on bigger bloggers’ radar screens

• Most people do Google or Technorati searches for their name, so they’ll see your post

Concerns

Loosing control

• Business never had control of what people say about them.

• You cant control the message

• But you can join the conversation and make sure that your side of the story is heard

Somebody will say something about me/us/our product

• If what people say is true its an opportunity for you to learn and improve

• And if people say something about your product which is untrue, you have an opportunity to correct it by responding appropriately!

Other concerns

• Leaking of internal corporate information might have very damaging results for business operations.

• Blogging is hard work

• Blogging is commitment

• Blogging is time consuming