The document outlines strategies for effective blogging, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, engagement, and consistency. It provides tips for finding one's voice, understanding the audience, and utilizing social media and listening tools to enhance visibility and engagement. Additionally, it encourages bloggers to manage their time efficiently and maintain a balance between personal and professional online identities.

1. Writing a Killer Blog (Without Killing Yourself)

2. Killer Blogging Killer Insight Killer Attitude Killer Listening Skills Killer Consistency Time Killer? Today’s Agenda

3. The Face of a Stone Cold Killer? Early adopter tech geek blogger 2,500+ posts since 2006 First to launch TweetDeck, Socialmedian, many Web services. Active social media user, especially Google Reader, Buzz, FriendFeed. Managing Director, New Media at Paladin Advisor Group Clients include Emulex, Swagelok, Brazen Careerist, My6sense, etc. Member of advisory boards SocialToo, ReadBurner, BuzzGain, Teens In Tech, and YackTrack

4. First: Stalking Your Kill Takes Time In 2006, I didn’t have very much focus, nor an audience In 2007, I noticed prominent people aware of my blog, and companies would respond In 2008, I became more embedded in social media, predictions around aggregation and lifestreaming came true In 2009, visibility grew as I expanded my reach to new social sites, stayed active via BlogPerfume

5. Killer Insight and Attitude

6. Why Do You Want to Blog Anyway? Blogs Need Passion and Authority If you don’t care about your topic, readers won’t either. If you can’t answer follow-up questions, you shouldn’t be participating. But if you feel a need to share and have something to say, the door is wide open. Is the Blog About You or Your Company? Know the audience and the goal when you get started. It’s probably not for the money or the fame. Always know the consequence of hitting the publish button, especially if what you do has ties to corporate.

7. Who Are You? Know Your Role. Analyst Engineer Enthusiast Executive Finance Marketing/PR Services User

8. Gaining Killer Authority Unique Content First to a story or an idea Firsthand data or research Unique Access Speaking directly to a source Being the source Unique Perspective What is everybody else missing?

9. Have You Seen Bad Blogs? Good blogging Has personality Has engagement Doesn’t seem filtered Has intelligence Has data Uses references, links Builds community Bad blogging Seems forced Is moderated Is infrequent Is unfocused Is siloed Is not believable

10. Some Killer Ideas Talk like a human, not like a robot. If it’s new, don’t be afraid to explain it. Highlight other people even if benefit is not obvious. If something works, make it a regular feature.

11. Ten Tips for A Killer Blog Do Not Expect Instant Success Find Your Voice and Focus Be Genuine and Trusted Be Consistent In Schedule Be Unique In Coverage Be Positive, Avoid Conflict Show Passion, Excitement Engage With Your Audience Find Conversations Everywhere There Is Always Time. Find it.

12. Killer Listening Skills

13. 3 Laws for Becoming a Killer Know the Tools Know what blogging and tweeting and sharing is all about. Listen Watch what your peers and competitors are doing. Who is acting in a way you admire? What are they doing right? Listen to what people say about your company, you and your ideas. You can be alerted in real time, even if you’re not constantly surveying. Participate Broadcasting into the wind doesn’t have real benefits. You are always a guest online. Act with respect and trade ideas. Participating gains you trust and consistent support.

14. Tools to Help You Listen Search Tools Twitter search Icerocket search Google Blog Search Comment Tracker BackType Linkage Web analytics Tools

15. Benefits Of Listening Well You’re a Smarter Blogger You can know more about your industry You’ll find new post ideas everywhere You Can See Trends Earlier Are customers, competitors or partners discussing something that you can take lead on? You Can Respond Faster To comments, tweets, and other blogs

16. Killer Discussions Encouraged Commenters and other distributors of your content won’t always agree. This is good! Engage in a fair way, not argumentative. Encourage discussion and highlight it.

17. Killer Consistency

18. What Pace Makes Sense for You? Once You Start Blogging, You Can Never Stop Before you start, see if you can keep a pace. Recommend posting 1-2x a week or more. Gaps are Extremely Visible If you can’t produce quality content on a frequent basis, then a blog shouldn’t be started.

19. A Day In the Life of a Killer Two blog posts 5 – 6 Twitter Updates Skim 1,000 RSS Articles Share 20-25 Top Articles in Google Reader Like 15 Items on FriendFeed and Google Buzz 20 Comments on FriendFeed and Google Buzz 1 – 3 Delicious Bookmarks Miscellaneous activity on Facebook, other networks. via TweetStats via Google Reader

20. Some More Numbers… Blog Frequency Engadget (350/wk) GigaOM (80/wk) Inside HPC (30/wk) LouisGray.com (11/wk) HP: Around the Storage Block (4/wk) EMC: Chuck’s Blog (4/wk) HDS: Hu Yoshida (1.6/wk) If You’re Not a News Site, Don’t Try. Be Realistic.

21. Other Measures of Consistency Topics Sports and Business? Tone Length 100 words or 1,000? Timing Morning or Night Graphics or Rich Media

22. Blogging In A World Obsessed With Twitter

23. The World of Blogging (2006) Blogging (the old way) Reader Comments And E-mail Links, Blog Rolls And TrackBacks Comments on Other Blogs

24. But Wait! There’s Much More Now. Blogging (the new way) +

25. Blogging Is More than One URL Killer blogging means being active wherever the conversation is and embracing the new tools in the right way. No more silos.

26. Anticipated Benefits Brand and Thought Leadership Updates will show the company is delivering consistent activity and listening. The company can be seen as developing thought leadership. Web site Traffic Google and other search engines are favoring sites that are updated frequently, and have new content. Thought-provoking blog posts and other social content will increase links to the site. Visibility and Engagement

27. Killing Time and Careers?

28. How I Make Time for Everything High Quality Input Reduce noise by subscribing, following, organizing the right people on the right networks Read Fast, Decide Fast, Act Fast Make a decision to an action (sharing + liking) quickly, and also skip irrelevant information quickly. Usual blog posts take about 20 minutes + imagery. “ And” and “Between” Social activity is easy in manageable chunks. I read RSS a few minutes of every hour through the day. Read feeds AND watch TV. Blog AND listen to music. Learn how to do things in parallel with practice.

29. Keep Work and Personal Separate Don’t Cross the Streams Unless you are a sole proprietor, you don’t want to pollute the brand. Work activity is more professional, less casual You can seamlessly transition if you are not tied to the brand. How to Do It Work life in one browser, and you in another. Separate preferences and logins for Twitter tools. Centralized Gmail account for social information Second Disqus commenting account for the company.

30. Views to a Kill

31. Where to Find Me Blog: http://blog.louisgray.com Buzz: http://www.google.com/profiles/louisgray Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/louisgray Friendfeed: http://www.friendfeed.com/louisgray LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/louisgray Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/louisgray (408) 646-2759 [email_address]

32. Thank you