1. If you build it, they will come...not quite.
Keys to successful corporate blogging
Ethan Yarbrough
Allyis
2. Ethan Yarbrough
President
Allyis, Inc
twitter: @ethany
blog: http://blog.allyis.com
Email: ethany@allyis.com
•Collaboration
•Knowledge Management
•Business Process
•Business Insights
twitter: @allyis
www.allyis.com
What We Do
6. Still Upon a Time
3 minute interview
$11,956
$3,985.33 per minute
7. Step One - Need/Want Recognition
Deciding there is, in fact, a need or a want to be filled.
Step Two - Information Search
Trying to determine what's available.
Step Three - Evaluation
Eliminating products/services/companies and deciding who's best.
Step Four - Purchase
Actually buying your product/service.
Step Five – Post Sales Support
Now that you own it, do you need help using it, troubleshooting
problems, etc.
5 Steps of the Buying Process
14. If You Build It, They Will Come?
In “Field of Dreams” those people had a need to
come, they came because the field fulfilled something
for them.
What are you fulfilling?
15. Thank You
Now what else you wanna know?
Where you can find me:
• Blog: http://blog.allyis.com
• Twitter: @ethany
Editor's Notes
Why blog
Part of it may be personal: because you want to write down things you’re learning about so you don’t forget them.
“Learning out loud”
The power of imperfection invites people in
You do get more knowledgable by having to work through ideas in writing
So people can Experience your business not just hear about it
Make you business an authority
Make your biz a resource within you area
In a services business like ours, it’s a way for us to give samples: samples of our thinking, experience, approach = try before you buy
News release book
Smarmy Doug Lewellyn guy
Allyis advertisement
Meet once or twice with a company that only cares about you if you pay them
They come back with something that tries to reflect your brand, inaccurate, means more to them than it does to you
You put into the hands of other people your right of representation
They get to tell the world who you are and they don’t even know you
Boo
American Airlines
3 minute interview
$11,956
3,985.33 per minute
Crappy sound from the arm of an airline seat
And no one, when they have the chance to listen to the radio on the airplane, chooses the talking!
8.4 million listeners
No one can access it after the fact
Does not persist as a resource over time
Compare that to blogging
I might not reach 8.4 mil
But I reach my audience as a resource with content I shape, with representation I control and that comes out of ourselves – we know ourselves
I reach the audience for whom I’m relevant – it’s not about number of impressions, it’s about impressions with audiences that care about what you have to say
And it persists, it’s there to stay and there when they are ready to engage it (not like the radio where if it doesn’t play when they’re listening, you’ve just thrown money away, and nobody is going to go see out an ad later in the day)
MUCH BETTER RETURN
A blog is a framing device
It helps you shape where and how you exist in the public’s imagination
Blogs/Twitter/Facebook can all be used in combination to good effect
How often should you generate content
How long should content be
What should nature of content be
INCLUDE COMMENTS?
If yes, how do you deal with them?
Acknowledge every comment you can
You are hosting a conversation, you want to thank people for their contribution
Their comment is a gift to you
Also a way to increase your search engine ranking
You have to deliver VALUE
smarter, entertained, better informed, more successful
GIVE
They’ll stay if there’s something in it for them
How do you enter the conversation?
Right way and wrong way?
Different characters
That will be different depending on your business
BrambleBerry sells product, so she wants to measure ROI for her blog around direct impact on product moved
Our sales cycle is different. We look more at awareness of our business, accurate understanding of our services and expertise, increases in lead generation, increased lead visits to the Web site, entrée into higher-level decision makers’ offices
All of those things are up
Let’s Talk about SEO
You decide you want to blog, you get it up and running.
Now how do you make it a destination?
Link building
Not just what you say, also how you say it
It all comes back around to being valuable and saying useful, interesting things
There are a log to SEO techniques, but if you focus too much on technique, you’ll lose focus on content and purpose
Be aware of techniques, but if all you can manage is to write useful informative content on a semiregular basis, you’ll still benefit considerably
Don’t try to be Chris Brogan or Seth Godin
Most people won’t be superstars
KNOW YOUR PURPOSE
What are you trying to achieve?
Awareness of you?
Awareness of your business service?
Just try to be as helpful as you can be to the people for whom your perspective is relevant
A small but engaged audience is better than a huge disengaged audience
