Blogging's Importance in Marketing Strategy

StrategicIMC.com [email_address] 616-285-6182 (h) • 616-322-1712 (c) linkedin.com/in/jonathanpetersen twitter.com/jonpetersen facebook.com/jonathanpetersen 3289 Bentwood Drive SE • Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 Blogging: What it is, Why it’s important, & How to Get Started

More than 25 years of experience in

Internet & Social Media marketing

general and direct marketing

retail & product marketing

strategic marketing & planning

brand management

discerning the voice of the consumer

corporate reputation management

national network news editing

voiceovers & audiobook narration

www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

22 years tenure at Zondervan, a HarperCollins company.

Leader in a variety of marketing management capacities that involved national and international scope.

Prior to Zondervan, was founding and managing Religion News Editor for UPI Radio Network, responsible daily for

News gathering

Interviewing

Reporting

Writing

Editing

Producing

Live anchoring of national newscasts

Promoting & growing the service’s syndication to radio stations across the country

Professional Voice Narration www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Education

MBA (Marketing) University of Phoenix

BA (Communications) University of Wisconsin – La Crosse

Diploma (Communications) Moody Bible Institute

Certified eMarketer eMarketing Association

Teaching/Speaking

Adjunct Instructor, Graduate Program, Spring Arbor University

Adjunct Professor, Undergraduate Program, Cornerstone University

Guest Lecturer, Graduate Program, Western Michigan University

Guest Lecturer, Marketing Calvin College

Speaker Maranatha Christian Writer’s Conf.

The Web’s Progression

Web 1.0

One way

Authoritarian

Passive

Static

Closed

Corbis

Microsoft Encarta

GeoCities

Hotmail

Conversational

Democratic

Active

Dynamic

Collaborative

iStockphoto

Wikipedia

Blogger

Twitter

Web 2.0 Web 3.0

Data Flow

Libertarian

Proactive

Real Time

Cloud

Beginning of the Internet

1969 – US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency ( ARPA ) starts developing and using packet-switching computer networks (ARPANET). Email is born.

Objective: To sustain decentralized communication ability in the event of a war.

Pre-1991 www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

1991 www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Web log or weblog

A website

consisting of entries (also called posts) of text, photos, charts, illustrations, videos, audio

appearing in reverse chronological order with the most recent entry appearing first (similar in format to a daily journal)

typically including reader comments and links to increase user interactivity.

September 11, 2001 www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Your Brand

Your competitive edge

Builds mind share

Readers will think of you first when they think of topics you write about

A lasting value: brand equity

Key “Triggers for Compliance”

Reciprocity – We feel compelled to give back once we’ve been on the receiving end.

Authority – We’re more easily influenced by those we perceive to be authorities.

Likability – The more likeable someone is, the more easily we’re persuaded by him or her.

Scarcity – Things are more desirable when they’re less accessible or available.

Social Proof – We feel safer following the pack.

Commitment and Consistency – We want dependability.

Why I Blog by Andrew Sullivan in The Atlantic

“ To blog is to let go of your writing in a way, to hold it at arm’s length, open it to scrutiny, allow it to float in the ether for a while, and to let others pivot you toward relative truth.”

www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/andrew-sullivan-why-i-blog

Reasons Other Than Literary

Become the Expert Position yourself as a thought leader of your genre; your craft; your subject matter.

Reader Relationships In a forum where your main objective not is to sell, you'll have a more personal relationship between you and your readers. Blogs are a fast way to join the readers’ discussions, provide tips and insights, or receive feedback.

Media Relations Media can regularly check what you have to say, instead of just being passive – sometimes indifferent – recipients of press releases.

Collaboration Use blogs as a workspace where project members keep each other updated without wasting time writing reports or searching the Outlook inbox.

Knowledge Management Blogging is a record of your ‘stream of consciousness’ that’s valuable for both you and your readers to find needed information and resources. Blogging is on-the-job learning.

Positioning As a thought leader, your readers will pay attention. They'll read and discuss what you have to say and be ready to buy your next book when it’s available.

Simplified podcasting and videocasting Let your fans get to know you in ways other than text. A blog allows you to have a central location from which to distribute and syndicate these media files.

Showcase photo and image galleries A picture is worth a thousand words. So save yourself some writing time by archiving images that contribute to your personal brand.

Test ideas and storylines A blog is an informal conversation where you invite your readers into engagement. Post an idea and see if it generates interest. Does anyone link to you? What do they say? Is it worth developing it into a book?

Rank high in search engines Google and other search engines reward sites that are updated often, that link to other sites, and most importantly, that has many inbound links. Start a blog and your ranking will boost.

SEO Benefits of Blogging.

Recency of Content

Frequency of Content

Age of Content

Page Title

Keyword Density

RSS Distribution

www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net Source: http://www.CompendiumBlogware.com

More visitors mean more awareness, more word-of-mouth, more potential sales

More inbound links signal authority to search engines

The more pages you have on your site, the more chances you have of getting found in search engines.

Traditional blog (Web based)

Microblog (Twitter, Tumblr, 12seconds,)

Video blog (YouTube, Vimeo, Qik, Ustream,)

Facebook fan page / MySpace page

Bookmarking (Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon,)

Image (Flickr, Twitpic, tinypic, photobucket,)

The keys to social media marketing are

Sharability and

Leverage

Blog Essentials

Keyword selection

Content (text, audio, video, photo, illustration, etc.)

Share functions

Tags

RSS feed

Widget

Fan Badge

LinkedIn Group

Link to your Twitter stream

Link to your Facebook fan page

Links to your book(s) information and purchase ability

Link(s) to your publisher(s)

Contact Information

Keyword Selection www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Keyword Research and Blogging

Create an exhaustive list.

Use those words when writing your blog posts.

Use them naturally; do not force them.

Keyword Selection www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Content www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Share Functions www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Tags www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

RSS www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Widget www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Fan Badge www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

LinkedIn Groups www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Links

Link to your Twitter stream

Link to your Facebook profile or fan page

Links to your book(s) information and purchase location

Link(s) to your publisher(s)

Contact Information www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Microblogging. Twoorl www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

“ You can never step into the same river; for new waters are always flowing on to you.” Heraclitus of Ephesus (540-480 BC )

Blogging. www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

Michael Hyatt

Website/Blog: http://michaelhyatt.com/

Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/michaelhyatt

Twitter page: http://twitter.com/MichaelHyatt

YouTube page: www.youtube.com/mhyatt18

Google profile: www.google.com/profiles/michael.hyatt?hl=en

How to Find Effective Bloggers

Use Google Blog Search. Enter your keywords to discover who’s written about that subject in the last week or so.

Google Alerts help you discover who’s talking about what.

Run a search directly from Search.Twitter, again using your keywords. Twitter can also be used to contact bloggers.

Look at the back links and blog rolls of interesting blogs.

Do a simple search in Google to see what pops up.

How to ID Influential Bloggers

How much traffic does the blog get?

Is it abusive, unfair, or biased?

What is its Google Page Rank?

How many links are pointing to the site?

How many comments are there and are those comments monitored?

Authors who Twitter

http://twitter.com/karenkingsbury

http://twitter.com/BodieThoene

http://twitter.com/jamesscottbell

http://twitter.com/megcabot

http://mashable.com/2009/05/08/twitter-authors/

Author Blogs

http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/ John Maxwell

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ Seth Godin

http://www.stephenprothero.com/ Stephen Prothero

http://www.forensicsandfaith.blogspot.com/ Brandilyn Collins

http://tweenyouandme.typepad.com/whatimthinking/ Nancy Rue

http://dragonsinourmidst.blogspot.com/ Bryan Davis

http://www.camys-loft.blogspot.com/ Camy Tang

http://www.michaelsnyderwrites.com/blog Michael Snyder

http://drgarychapman.blogspot.com/ Gary Chapman

http://www.ransomedheartblog.com/john/ John Eldridge

Starting your own blog

Understand that the blog is not for the hard sell.

It has to be useful and talk about things other than your book(s) and what you’re up to. Make it a useful two-way conversation.

Encourage comments from your readers and respond to them.

Be yourself and write naturally.

Blogging. www.StrategicIMC.com | jonathan.petersen@comcast.net

www.problogger.net

Blogging mistakes to avoid

Infrequent blog posts . Six a week is the ideal and once a week a minimum. Get into a rhythm of posting and keep to it.

No imagery . Use graphics, screen shots, and photographs. Optimize image captions with target keywords.

No podcasts or videos . Go beyond text and images; use sound and video.

Too many 2,000 word essays . Most successful blog posts are short and punchy. Infrequently a longer one can give more detail.

Follow my microblogging at http://twitter.com/jonpetersen where I point to articles about leadership , branding , the media , PR , and Internet marketing .

My Twitter site is featured in Alltop

at twitterati.alltop.com , marketing.alltop.com , & socialmedia.alltop.com Also featured at www.socialbrandindex.com/twitter/executives

StrategicIMC.com [email_address] 616-285-6182 (h) • 616-322-1712 (c) linkedin.com/in/jonathanpetersen twitter.com/jonpetersen facebook.com/jonathanpetersen 3289 Bentwood Drive SE • Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 Blogging: What it is, Why it’s important, & How to Get Started

StrategicIMC.com [email_address] 616-285-6182 (h) • 616-322-1712 (c) linkedin.com/in/jonathanpetersen twitter.com/jonpetersen 3289 Bentwood Drive SE • Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 Jonathan Petersen, MBA, CeM Proficient in Corporate Reputation Management/Public Relations Internet & Social Media Marketing General, Retail, & Direct Marketing Brand Management Content Marketing | WOM | CRM | SEO | Mobile | Media Coaching