WARNING: Do not read this post if:
- You already have a corporate blog
- You blog more than I do
- You think I am a faker
There… now for those who are considering adding a blog to your online strategy, consider the following as a brief tutorial of things/concepts you should know before beginning.
Blogging Engines
A Blog has an engine behind it. The engine controls the function and capabilities with a blog. There are thousands of engines out there each with their own niche/features and purpose.
I personally use Blogger and WordPress. And I am trying to convert those who are serious about blogging to the wordpress engine.
If you choose to go with wordpress there are two versions, wordpress.com (hosted, limited in features, good SEO) and wordpress.org (need to have a host/webserver download wordpress to there, install it, and setup plugins/themes). Blogger is 100% free but can be fairly limiting.
Other Platforms to consider:
Content for a Corporate Blog
By far two thirds of the difficulty in blogging is generating content. If you have no problems generating content, then by all means skip this and read on. For the rest of us think about a blog post as an answer to one of your client/consumers questions. If you could spend 30 minutes with them over coffee what would you teach them? The answer to that question is a good post, and has the potential to be a great post.
You do not need to be the top expert in the field. We all look up to better authors for inspiration. Realize you have a target audience who can learn from you — teach them. If you are offering educational material that is meeting or filling a need people will subscribe and consider you a valuable resource.
Does your competition blog? What is their content about, is it beneficial or just tooting their own horn. The litmus test for me is this: do I subscribe to my competitors’ blog. If yes then they are generating good content. Otherwise they are just bragging about themselves. (see picture above)
Goals for a Corporate Blog
The basic goal of blogging for a business is to help convert potential clients to existing clients and convert existing clients to repeat clients. How is this done? When a potential client views your website there are limited ways to interact: fill out a contact form, call, email, or the dreaded snail mail. But on a blog a potential client can comment or subscribe (as well as the others mentioned above)
Comments allow for dialog opening the potential client up to an interaction with your company.
Subscriptions open up the door for you to speak right to your potential client with each successive blog post. They are 1 step closer to converting to a real client.
Gathering Inspiration
Learn how to use RSS and how to subscribe to feeds. YouTube – Video: RSS in Plain English Then subscribe to blogs on your topic. By reading the information in those blogs you will be able to present good/new information to your community. Generally people who read your blog don’t read all the other blogs out there. Cite references, and refer people to posts of quality. In doing so share opinions, give contradicting positions, or expound upon the other blog post.
SIDE NOTE: by dialoging with people on their blog they may dialog with you on your blog (and potentially subscribe too!) The dialog is public and encourages more dialog. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.
More info later:
Not everything can be explained in a single post. Plus I’d like to know if this is beneficial to you or what your questions might be. So here is what I’m planning for the next business blog posting.
- WordPress plugins – a must have list
- How to acquire subscribers (the other third of the difficulty in blogging)
- Search Engine keyword selection/density — SEO stuff
- Widgets
- Advertising
- Frequency of posting content
- Imagery
Ok, so fire off your questions, I’m sure I’ve missed quite a bit.
(if you know more than I do and have made it this far I encourage you to wax eloquent in the comments, acquire new subscribes that way eh?)
(@SOCOACH)
So, WordPress.com is perfect for an external blog while WordPress.org is best suited to an internal, web-hosted blog. Don’t forget BackType as a plug-in when you get there. And how much do you want for that very cool white mini-van? You can keep the sound equipment; I just want the vehicle.
(@namtrok)
Tell ya what, trade me straight up: you give me this: http://www.uberreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/a-team-mini-car.jpg and I’ll give you the white toaster.
Both the installed wp and the hosted wp can be used for external blogs, but the installed is the only wp option for an internal blog… but who cares about that SEO stuff right?
I’m currently looking into backtype… though I can’t say it’s a must have yet.
(@SOCOACH)
SEO? We don’t need no stinkin’ SEO!
(@SOCOACH)
I don’t know who did the graphics on that red-on-black Smart car, but they completely screwed it up. I would love to get it for you but, in good conscience, I cannot. I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
(@BFMack)
Good stuff Paul,
Particularly for beginners like me. I have also linked your blog to mine at Healthcare Grand Rapids.wordpress.com.
Questions:
Content: In your opinion, is it permisable/advisable to republish others work on your blog, provided that proper accreditation is included? I have been doing a great deal of that since setting up the blog a couple of weeks ago, just as a means of regularly adding content. (I am also writing original stuff which I will add as available).
Presentation: I would like to use my first post as a “Welcome” that comes up first every time someone logo on. I set that post up as a Page as well as a Post, but I don’t think it is doing what I want it to do. Is there an easy way to make that happen?
(@namtrok)
Brian, just to clarify (for some reason the link didn’t come through) your blog is at http://healthcaregrandrapids.wordpress.com/ and the content is good, but I’d recommend doing more of a review of postings.
Search Engines penalize content that is lifted (and the sites that lift it) from page rankings. So instead give your audience the highlights, If you were marketing (for or against) the specific article what would you say?
People are subscribing to your blog for your take, your opinion. As a reader I’ll jump to the source if I find that you give me good links that are worth reading.
As for a “welcome new user” post I recommend using one of these plugins: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do or http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-greet-box Unfortunately these are only allowed on the installed version of wordpress (wordpress.org) If you are interested I might be able to host this blog for you… lets connect over email about this.