Network Solutions Learning Lunch:Part 4–Business Blogging

March 30, 2009

Steven Fisher

ROI of this Session

• Learn what a blog is

• What business and corporate blogging is

• Who and why people are doing this

• What we do here at Network Solutions

• Do’s and Don’ts of Blogging• How You Can Participate

What Makes Up a Blog?

• Easy content creation and publishing

• RSS and Subscription Really Simple Syndication It’s the way your posts are fed to your

readers. Readers use an RSS Reader like My

Y!, Google Reader, or Gator RSS is pull, not push

• Comments

• Linking and Syndication

• Widgets and Plugins

Why Blog?

• Thought leadership

• Share experiences and value w/ community

• SEO

• Provide capture point for marketing initiatives

• Influence the media

• Crisis PR

• And much, much more

Content: Editorial Mission

• The editorial mission serves as a compass

• Determines topics

• Coming up with ideas can be a brainstorm

• How do the topics tie to your work?

• Your stakeholders?

• Do you have commentary to add?

Content: Bringing the Editorial Mission to Life

• Think in brush strokes

• Color commentary on pertinent topics

• Posts are often 3-10 paragraphs in length

• Fully researched concepts can be broken into several posts

Content: Tone

• It’s not a formal business document Personality should be

included Write it like you were

talking with someone on a Saturday

• Remove unnecessary 1st person (I, me)

• Edit for grammar

Content: Structure

• Long diatribes will drive people away

• Ideal paragraph length is 3-6 lines

• Posts greater than 10 paragraphs should be broken into two posts

• Minimum of three links to other blogs per post

• Ideal: Video, audio to supplement

• Must: A picture for each post

Content: Researching Links, Photos

• Flickr Creative Commons for Images: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

• Make sure to provide attribution

• Places to research blog posts for crosslinks: s.technorati.com blogsearch.google.com Icerocket.com

• Use key words and phrases from posts to find links

• Ideal: You or PR firm is using del.icio.us to build reservoir of links, informative posts

Promotion

• Comment on and link to other blogs Other bloggers will

become aware of you and link back

• Register the blog with Technorati, Google Blogs, and other blog search engines

• Include the blog’s url in your email signature, on your business card, and on your social network profiles

Frequency & Fodder

• The more you post, the better 2 – 3 times a week is a good

goal Be consistent

• Need ideas? Read other blogs on your topic Stay on top of news related to

your topic Your offline experiences are

valuable & a great platform for a unique idea or perspective

Keep an idea log for future posts

Business Blogging Types

External blog(ex. brand blog)

• free discussion of issues• collective intelligence• direct communication between various layers of an organization• a sense of community

Internal blog(ex. HR blog) CEO's blog

• conversation with customers • better identification of trends• testing new ideas and products• visibility (SEO)• spreading company's values

• company's vision and mission• CEO's values and life, making him more "accessible"• part of company's branding• written by the CEO

•Jonathan Schwartz (President & CEO, Sun Microsystems)

•Microsoft developers' blogs•Direct2Dell blog

Types of corporate blogs

Big Brand Example: Dell

• Embracing social media is a huge undertaking, and involves a large investment.

• Dell didn’t shy away from these obstacles, instead they’ve gone above and beyond, truly cultivating a cross-platform community.

• They’ve created multiple Twitter handles, a network of blogs, and are very active on Facebook.

• Dell is also one of the few companies to publicly state that they created a return on investment from Twitter. Apparently, Dell’s social media efforts help create “$1 million in revenue“.

Big Brand Example: Ford

• Looking at ford.digitalsnippets.com you might just see another press release web site.

• The also are using multiple feedburner feeds for various products and categories.

• On the homepage you can see that they’re using a Flickr widget and the bottom of the page has an automotive type of blogroll in the footer.

• They’re using a Creative Commons license on the bottom of every page - an “Attribution-NonCommercial” license.

• Basically you can remix the content for Non-commercial use, which I believe is a first for such a big corporate giant as Ford - especially for media assets such as these.

Big Brand Example: IBM

• When IBM decided they wanted to start using blogs, they didn’t just create one blog, they created an entire network.

• IBM created a way and allowed their employees to write about their experiences, what they’re working on, or any other topic of choice.

• IBM capitalizes on the intelligence of their employees to give consumers insight into what happens behind the scenes.

• By giving the industry experts they’ve hired a voice, IBM is able to highlight the people behind their products.

• Users get to see how IBM operates, and are given a direct connection with IBM employees.

First, there was Solutions Are Power…

…and then there were 10.

Blog URL MantraDesign Blog http://www.netsoldsg.com/ Everything UI

MySolutionSpot http://blog.mysolutionspot.com Small Business Networking and Education

Internal Blog http://intranet.netsol.com/wordpress/ Hub of Network Solutions

Online Marketing Blog www.marketing.networksolutions.com/blog

Small Business Marketing

Solutions Are Power Blog http://blog.networksolutions.com/ Getting the Most Out of Your Online Business

Women Grow Business http://www.womengrowbusiness.com Women Entrepreneurs Growing Their Business

Grow Smart Business http://www.growsmartbusiness.com Smart Small Business Advice and Resources

Chief Knowledge Guru Blog http://www.chiefknowledgeguru.com Advice and Resources on Leveraging

E-Commerce Blog http://www.networksolutionsecommerceblog.com/

Living and Breathing E-Commerce

Smart Web Site Security http://www.smartwebsitesecurity.com Securing Your Online Presence

DO’s

DO Write in a human tone of voice DO Use meaningful titles DO Enable and monitor your comments DO Link to other sites DO Be Passionate DO Give credit where it’s due (pictures,

text quotes) DO Syndicate and re-use text

DON’T - Posting

Topics in which The Company is involved in litigation or could in the future: (i.e. policy, customer disputes, etc.)

Non-public information of any kind about The Company, including, but not limited to, policies and strategy

Illegal or banned substances and narcotics Pornography or other offensive illegal materials Defamatory, libelous, offensive or demeaning material Private/Personal matters of yourself or others Disparaging/threatening comments about or related to anyone Personal, sensitive or confidential information of any kind

Consistent with the The Company Employee Social Media and Blogging Guidelines, please do not write any content or postings that involve or are related to the following items:

Great Post on Policies and Guidelines from Raj Malik

http://blog.networksolutions.com/2009/sxsw-follow-up-corporate-social-media-guidelines/

Many Ways to Participate

• Become a Contributor 15 minutes to write a blog post

• Start Your Own Blog Personal Blog Network Solutions Blog

Where Can I get Started?

• Self-hosted e.g. Wordpress.org

• Web-services http://wordpress.com http://www.blogger.com (Google) http://www.livejournal.com http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

Few Quick Steps To Get Started

• Pages – create an About Me

• Links – add your neighbour’s blog

• Appearance choose template add widgets

• Settings – Discussion – Comment moderation

• Start Writing!

Final Thoughts from others

• Listen first

• Conversation, not publishing

• Be a useful conversationalist

• Build relationships - one at a time

• Take a Leap of Faith and Jump In!

Questions?

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