Why and How Businesses Should Blog. Your Presenter Jamie Smith Jamie’s Notebook Jamiesnotebook.com @JamiesNotebook [email protected].
Dec 25, 2015
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
- Slide 1
- Why and How Businesses Should Blog
- Slide 2
- Your Presenter Jamie Smith Jamies Notebook Jamiesnotebook.com @JamiesNotebook [email protected]
- Slide 3
- Dont worry about writing this all down word for word. I will tweet out a copy of my presentation later or I can email it to you. I make them wordy so you can understand the notes later.
- Slide 4
- What exactly is a blog? "Blog" is an abbreviated version of "weblog," which is a term used to describe websites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. Used to provide ongoing updates to the company website and to share information, insights Examples of blogs: http://lindarichardsphotography.com/blog/ http://ontimelogistics.wordpress.com/ http://arvestblog.com/
- Slide 5
- Why Should Businesses Blog? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Industry leadership Community building Brand accessibility Marketing standard
- Slide 6
- SEO: Spider Food Search engine optimization is how people find your website. People who find your website are more likely to buy from you. Good SEO practices include using keywords effectively and producing frequent, fresh content that your audience would want to read and might be searching for online. No way to optimize or keyword for everything Focus on long-tail keywords as people use them more. Think of short phrases people would search, not just individual words.
- Slide 7
- Industry Leadership Posts dont have to be profound to be thoughtful. Reflect and share, dont flaunt. Post content related to industry news, which shows your credibility and knowledge.
- Slide 8
- Community Building The comments section invites people to contribute their thoughts, and comments beget comments. People have a tendency to congregate digitally around blogs or social media platforms that they mutually enjoy. Build that meeting place for your audience with fresh, interesting content.
- Slide 9
- Brand Accessibility Your company is made up of human beings, show it! Highlight employees, provide personal insights, and other glimpses into your company culture. Blogs help take away the antiseptic feel of a faceless corporation and helps show the humans behind the brand. People do business with people, especially in small business.
- Slide 10
- Marketing Standard Blogging is a current content marketing standard and for good reason. B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not. Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI. People have come to expect companies to engage them using blogs and social media. If you dont keep up, it will give the perception that you dont care.
- Slide 11
- Where Do I Start? Using WordPress? Youre ahead of the game. WordPress makes it easy to add a blog to an existing (or new) website. Make sure your site/blog is mobile friendly so Google doesnt punish you in the search rankings.
- Slide 12
- In-house or Outsource? In-house Outsource Pro: Someone within your company is going to know more intimately about your culture and processes (requiring less research) Con: Current employees already have duties or are not experienced in business blogging Pro: Outsourcing lets someone who is experienced, efficient, and professional manage the blog aspect of your branding Con: Someone who is not within the business/industry will need more research time including potential interviews, etc.
- Slide 13
- How do I decide? How much time am I or my employees spending on the blog (and how does that translate to potential billable hours they could be doing instead)? Am I getting the returns I want on the blog that make the investment Im making so far worth it? If not, why? Are other alternatives available besides outsourcing that would help me accomplish my goals? These include paying a one-time consultation for the employee who write the blog, changing which employee write the blog? Are there qualified freelance business bloggers available in my area? What about a full-service marketing agency that might offer the same service?
- Slide 14
- All about that voice Voice is part of branding and includes tone, word choice Voice can and should evolve as the company evolves Business owner must be involved even for outsourced blogs Voice should reflect the company as an entity not the owner, even in a family business When you have multiple writers, determine if they write in their individual (but related) voices or a corporate voice. In other words, are the blogs from individuals or always from the brand no matter who writes?
- Slide 15
- Establishing voice Character/Persona (is the voice: friendly, warm, inspiring, playful, authoritative, professional?) Tone (is the voice: personal, humble, clinical, honest, direct, scientific?) Language (is the voice: complex, savvy, insider, serious, simple, filled with jargon, fun, whimsical?) Purpose (is it to engage, educate, inform, enable, entertain, delight, sell or amplify?)
- Slide 16
- What Do I Say? Topics can cover many areas of your business: Internal news sales, new products, company philosophy External, industry news whats new or in the news in your industry? Reflect on the trends and offer insights.
- Slide 17
- What do I say (continued) Community news and events, especially if a particular cause closely relates to your business. Personal/personnel news announce the birth of a new baby or an employees sons graduation. (This will depend on the nature of the business and employees must give permission.)
- Slide 18
- Three popular post types Michael Hyatt (www.michaelhyatt.com) offers great advice on structuring three different kinds of blog posts: The how to post The list post The review post
- Slide 19
- How Do I Say It? Key components of a blog post: 350 700 words Attention-getting, keyworded title Open paragraph has to go immediately to the point Relevant image(s) Personal experience (when appropriate) Main body make it easy to skim using subheadings, bullet points, etc. Close with a discussion question (when appropriate)
- Slide 20
- Promoting the Blog Integrate blog with appropriate social media Make sure the blog link is visible from your websites homepage and also listed on pertinent websites Integrate with company/organization newsletter Use blog to generate subscribers and build email lists
- Slide 21
- Resources Reputable sources for finding ideas, help and other resources: Hubspot.com Grammarist.com Socialmediaexaminer.com Blog.CollectiveBias.com MichaelHyatt.com Zemanta (insertable pictures) Commons.wikimedia.org (pictures) Picmonkey.com (Editing photos, adding text) Canva.com (creating graphics)
- Slide 22
- Online is forever and what you say on your business blog affects your brand!
Related Documents
