Social Media Learning Lunch Part 4 Business Blogging

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 1 st 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 Mantra Design 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?

Social Media Learning Lunch Part 4 Business Blogging

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Social Media Learning Lunch Part 4 Business Blogging — Presentation Transcript