Having an engaging blog is key for keeping customers coming back for more, so the pressure's on for big companies (especially BtoB) to post great content.
In this presentation from Level3 Digital & Social Media Manager Ben Bacon, you'll learn how they built their blog from scratch and tips for creating awesome (and relevant) content.
A few big ideas Ben covers:
1. How to get to know your customers by listening to their interests and learning how they speak
2. How to determine the appropriate tone and style of your content
3. How to find, train, and empower employees to contribute to the blog
3. Starting social media from scratch
January 2011
What are we going to say? What tone should we say it in? Where should we say it?
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4. Step #1 – Look at our business and how we compete
What do we do?
B2B Telecom
Internet access, VPNs, phone
service to companies
How do we compete?
Intimate customer experience
Collaborate/2-way dialogue
Challenge the status quo
Enjoyable to do business with
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5. Step #2 – Listen to customers and how they speak
Who do we sell to?
Network engineers
Telecom managers
Solution architects
IT organizations
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6. Step #2 – Listen to customers and how they speak
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7. Step #2 – Listen to customers and how they speak
Who do we sell to?
Network engineers
Telecom managers
Solution architects
IT organizations
What are they like?
Mostly male
Self-identified “geeks”
Eclectic, super opinionated
Contrarian viewpoints
Great BS detectors
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8. Step #3: Let the sum of those things set your tone and
content
How do we compete?
Intimate customer experience Human
Collaborate/2-way dialogue Not “Telecomplicated”
Challenge the status quo Approachable/Inquisitive
Enjoyable to do business with Friendly/Humorous
What are they like?
Mostly male
Quirky
Self-identified “geeks” Self-Deprecating
Eclectic, super opinionated Edgy
Contrarian viewpoints Transparent
Great BS detectors
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9. Step #4: Find employees that embody that tone and can
create that content
Search for storytellers not titles
Go way beyond product…who
talks to customers and who does
what our customers do
Look for long articulate emails,
people that tell great stories at
happy hours
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10. Step #5: Help train and empower them to do it
We had engineers…not bloggers
Blogging not a skillset, weekly emails with tips
on how to write blog content
Long leadup time – Jan to June to find and
train folks
Leverage listening tool, twitter feed, VOC
research to find potential stories
Avoid brochure speak like the plague
Short, punchy > long, technical
Would someone share this?
They write…then we do the rest - titles,
punch it up, legal approval and post on
their behalf
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11. Beyond Bandwidth – blog.level3.com
Launched June 2011
~100 posts
~20 writers
~20 categories
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12. Things that have worked for us in blogging
Analogies – How can we help engineers communicate XYZ solution?
Network = lawnmowing, teenage girls, learning languages, kitchen renovations
Uncomplicating telecom
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13. Things that have worked for us in blogging
Global Events/Current News
Overpopulation, Borders closing, cord cutting, Arab Spring
You can’t have thought leadership without readership
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14. Things that have worked for us in blogging
Group Posts
# Things That Take You Beyond Bandwidth
Showcases our diverse thinking, easy to assemble
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15. Things that have worked for us in blogging
Nostalgia/Company History
Help customers build an emotional/personal connection to Level 3
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16. Things that have worked for us in blogging
Look in the Mirror Posts
How can we be as transparent as possible?
What have we done wrong? Can we pass those learnings to customers?
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17. Things that have worked for us in blogging
Talk about the Taboo
Death, taxes…fiber cuts; How can we educate our customers on outages?
Single tweet picked up by Telecom News…then GigaOm and Gizmodo…then
Yahoo News and The Atlantic…the Der Spiegel, etc etc.
• This article rocks. I’m the guy that says “well, according to the traceroute, it’s the ISP’s
sh*t.” Thoroughly enjoyed it.
• Dude. I fricking love you. Level3 is my world. Everything I use, I know where
the pingtrace runs. Without level3, I have no internet. Level3 is the sh*t.
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18. Fun has spread across all social media
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19. Light content, serious results
Blog Traffic
100,000 page views by 3rd month
Readers from 178 different countries
YouTube
#1 organic result for “Data Center Networking”
Top 3 for “Unified Communications”
Top 5 for “SIP Trunking”
Twitter
From 0 to 8,000 followers
Klout score – from 0 to 50+
• Influential in Broadband, Video, Cloud Computing, etc.
Google – 3,000 different keyword combos driving blog visits
CDN architecture, why Ethernet better, concurrent call paths, culture at Level 3
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20. Blog management tips
Monthly recaps in the form of a blog
Assignments – not editorial calendars
Find self-motivated bloggers
Get up, walk around the office and always carry a camera phone
Don’t be afraid of the red pen, especially on the title and first 2
paragraphs
Roll up your sleeves and write some yourself
Everyone thinks a.) their job is boring and b.) they’d be awful bloggers -
you need to get people out of their comfort zones
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21. Come see us in Colorado!
Ben Bacon - @benjaminbacon
Ben.Bacon@level3.com
Twitter - @level3
Facebook.com/level3
Blog.level3.com
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