Just you, in the beginning

In the beginning it will be just you.  You’re the one leading the charge.  First few pieces of content will be produced and posted by you.  But as the blog grows you can open up the gates.  When you start promoting your blog internally, it will provide everyone with a glimpse of style and a sense of direction for the blog. And this evolve as more people get involved and leadership changes. So, it is very important for you to create content on your own to set a precedent.  In addition to style, it is your opportunity to establish certain formatting guidelines, use of media and the type of content should be produced.

Setup the guidelines

Based on your first few blog posts, video posts or even an infographic create some guidelines.  Don’t get too technical or wordy.  A simple 1 page document in bullet point will suffice.  Explain your overall corporate blogging strategy, what you’re trying to accomplish, how you’re going to accomplish it, and how everyone can help you get there.  In your blogging guidelines, outline what a blog is, how to write it, length, where to get topic ideas and other relevant instructions. Just like a real blog post, if you make it too long, most people will not read it.

Plant some seeds

Ask your colleagues for feedback, even topic ideas.  Open up casual conversations about what you’re doing and what you’re hoping to accomplish with the blog. Some people will be brave to volunteer to submit an article others will care less about blogging or social media.  But that’s ok, we’ll just leave them in the stone ages.

Recruit

Now that everyone knows about the company blog, it is time for you to solicit content, recruit contributors and build a team.  Simply send out an email to your team, or ask for 5-10 minutes during staff meetings to make your pitch.  Share your one-page document you prepared earlier with interested parties.

Get senior support

You don’t have to follow my process step by step. You can do in any order you like and what suits your style and your oganization.  But if i had to pick one thing form this article as key takeaway, is to get senior management support.  Getting senior management’s support will help you rally the troops.

Like the most of my suggestions, this blog post is aimed at small and mid-sized businesses who are very entrepreneurial, without redundant processes and levels of bureaucracy.  The businesses that employ 1 or 2 marketers to handle all marketing activities, and are trusted and respected by their colleagues and management.  The process for building a blogging team within a larger corporation will look a lot different.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do at your company, what matters is what you can teach to and share with others.  Everyone from the receptionist to sales reps and CEOs should be contributing to the blog.  Every person has a different background and experiences.  Everyone can offer a unique perspective and a different story to tell.

This is actually good news for those who are committed to corporate blogging. It will be easier to cut through the clutter and to reach your audience.

The reasons cited for this decline in corporate blogging are the time and resources required to create new content consistently, updates to various platforms, concerns over negative comments, and lack of effective measurement of ROI. In addition, the study’s findings also revealed that companies are turning to new digital tools and focusing their efforts on facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

But here’s the paradox, if those who are not blogging (writing, podcasting, producing videos, etc) any more and not creating any valuable content what are they doing on facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. Is it just to provide customer support? Fill our timelines with marketing and sales pitches? I do know the answer to that and it’s worthy of a blog post itself.  What do you think?

I watched the SNL episode live for the first time in several months and thought it was hilarious.  In the morning I couldn’t wait to share some of the top moments with my fiance, but I couldn’t find the clip of Housewives of Disney.  Results on search engines we’re dominated by links to NBC and other pages that embbeded content from Hulu. But, since I’m in Canada I couldn’t watch it.

I watched the show live on NBC just eight hours ago, but I couldn’t watch it online?  If this was 3-5 years ago, I would say I was frustrated, but these days if I can’t find the content on official channels, I’ll find it elsewhere.

In this case, I found the clip of Housewives of Disney on GossipCop. And guess what NBC and Hulu? You’ve accomplished nothing by restricting your content to be viewed only in specific regions.  No matter how hard you try to block and prevent people who WANT to consume your content they will find it elsewhere.  They will direct their attention and time to other sources.  They will bookmarks those sites and share them with friends. As visits and page views go up, other sites will reap financial benefits.

We can argue all we want whether other sources and sites such as GossipCop are legitimate or not, but the end user doesn’t care.  The end user WANTS to consume the content.  If you block it, they will find it elsewhere.

P.S.

Here’s the link to SNL clip: The Real Housewives of Disney.

How Do I Generate Keywords?

There are different approaches and philosophies to generating keywords, and is a science in itself.  I like to start off by doing some research using Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool. This will help you identify top keywords that drive large amounts of traffic.  However, even if you do identify the right keywords, you need to have the right SEO practices in place to ensure your pages are optimized for that keyword.

My best piece of advice when optimizing for specific keywords is to create content for people, not search engines.  I discussed this point in greater detail in one of my archived posts: Optimize for Human First, Search Engines Second.

If you’re just starting out, and need some base keywords, analyze your competitors websites. You can use Textalyser to generate keyword analysis of your competitor’s websites.  You can use some of these base words to expand your research using AdWords Keyword Tool.

These online tools will provide you with a comprehensive list of related keywords, competitiveness and how many searches have been conducted for these keywords.  But one thing you won’t see is how well they convert.

So, the next logical question is:

How I Do Generate Keywords That Convert?

The answer to this question lies in your ability and willingness to do some market research.  If you been running your business offline, listen to and keep track of words and phrases your clients use.  Most people will use conversational language to perform online searches as well.

If you already have an established website, analyze your visitor data using one of the analytics tools.  Find out how people are finding your site, what keywords they use, which keywords make them stay longer, which keywords convert visitors to paying customers and so on.  This subject is beyond the scope of this blog post.  See what works and what doesn’t. Optimize your future content based on well performing keywords.

Of course having the right keywords, is just one piece of the puzzle.  There are dozens of other SEO tactics you need to deploy such as having properly optimized tags, page titles, links, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, I strongly encourage you to prepare content for people first, and search engines second.  Good quality content will drive traffic, reduce bounce rates, drive conversions and prompt your site visitors to share with their networks.

Now that you’ve got all the necessary approvals and are in the processes of planning your corporate blogging strategy, it is also a good time to start setting it up. If you got access to IT, are tech-savvy or have someone on your team with experience in various internet application and blogging platforms you may even skip this post. But if you’re wondering where and how to start a blog from a technology stand point, read on.

If you’re a small to medium size business you probably fall into one of these categories.

Sales Brochure aka Static Site

A static site or also known as brochure site is simply an online version of your sales brochure.  It’s littered with outdated graphics, content and SEO. It’s simple at its core and the last redesign or update happened a few years ago. Get a new site. Great news is that you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars and endure wait time to get one up and running.  Setup WordPress on your web server, pick a theme, customize it to fit your brand.

No Site

Get a new site.  You’ve got a blank slate.  Explore your options.

Custom Built Site

If you have a custom built site, you most likely have a fatter budget for this than most small and mid size businesses.  Get your agency to incorporate one of the blogging platforms into your site.

Although there are a number of blogging solutions out there and I’ve tried most of them, but my most favorite and preferred is WordPress.  You can download it and host it on your own web server. It is quick and robust. Has a huge and very active development community. You can get a tonne of plugins and extensions. It is also customizable, and best of all, there is an never endless ocean of well designed themes.

If you fall into the first two buckets, here are the 5 steps to launching a new site with a blog:

1. Get a new web host or upgrade current one

WordPress requires just a couple of things:

1. PHP version 5.2.4 or greater
2. MySQL version 5.0 or greater

Make sure your web-host offers it.  More on the requirements, see this article: WordPress Requirements

2. Download and install WordPress

The world doesn’t need another blog post or instructional manual on how to setup WordPress. Here’s the guide straight from the source: 5 Minute WordPress Installation

3. Buy a theme for your site and install it

• Themeforest
• Woothemes
• Mojo Themes

Set it up

Configure WordPress settings to your liking and customize the theme to fit your needs and brand identity.

Pinterest works great for retailers, fashion brands, consumer brands, artists, designers of all kinds and everything in between.  Basically, if your product or service relies on visual presentation to help sell itself, then Pinterest is a great place to build a following and drive traffic to your site. However, if you’re a B2B company selling services that can’t be (read: challenging to be) represented visually you may feel left out.  Don’t fret, many B2B companies can still leverage Pinterest and build a strong community.

Infographics

Infographics are posters created to visually represent data in an interesting way.  As humans we love looking at beautiful things.  Think about it, what do you prefer, looking at boring Excel charts or a well designed Infographic?  (If you’ve never seen an Infographic check out my Infographic Pinboard on Pinterest for some examples.) The answer will always be Infographic. B2B companies collect and have access to all kinds of data.  Either create your own infographics poster or scour the blogosphere for infographics that relate to your industry, market or company.  Create a Pinterest board where you can collect your online infographics posters.

Showcase Company Culture

Got a cool office decor?  Work stations designed for optimal productivity? Staff break room with cool toys?  Showcase it.  You’ve got nothing to lose. You can help inspire others. It also gives you an opportunity to market yourselves to potential candidates.

Motivational Slogans

Do your employees write messages on whiteboards that help them stay motivated?  Why not snap a picture and upload it to Pinterest.  These motivational slogans can also be found on sticky notes and company walls.  Create a board that showcases how your staff keeps its self motivated, productive and on track.

The B2B Marketing objection to joining yet another social network might be, ‘but our customers aren’t on there.’ Of course they are! Who runs the companies you sell to? People. And where are these people? They’re online; discovering, sharing and communicating with other people.

The bottom line is, don’t be put off by Pinterest’s emphasis on visuals. Every company out there can find enough interesting visuals within their organization or online to contribute to and build their own interesting boards on Pinterest.

Why You’re Doing It and What You Expect From Your Company Blog

You need to know why you’re doing this and what your expectations are.  Write it out. Create a little brief on why your company will start a blog, what will it accomplish and how you will accomplish it.  Please don’t say ‘because everyone else is doing it.’  You need to have a real purpose. Be objective. Keep it short and simple.  It’s something that you’ll also be able to share with your superiors and colleagues.

Create a Blogging Committee or a Team

Think about how you’re going to handle additional workload.  Consider creating a blogging committee or a team of regular contributors.  I always promote the idea that everyone should be blogging, but in the beginning, just focus on creating a core group of bloggers.  The ones who are already familiar with blogging and social media.  When you gain traction, slowly open the invite to contribute to the rest of your company.

Define the Type of Content You Plan on Publishing

As you develop your team or a blogging committee, without a doubt you’ll find someone who shares the same passion for blogging and social media and value in it as much as you do.  Team up to develop blogging content ideas.  Ask yourselves, what are you going to blog about?  Don’t skip this step.  you will have to revert to your goals and what you’re trying to accomplish with your blog. Will it be educational content, will it be opinions, reviews, or shameless self-promotion?  Beware of the latter.

Set Up a Publishing Schedule

Set a realistic schedule.  Start slow. If you’ve set up a blogging committee of 6 members, you can start with 6 blog post a month.  This way everyone has an opportunity to contribute something at least once and see how much commitmment blogging really takes.

The success of your company log will heavily weigh on your commitment to it.  You need to constantly produce fresh content. Continually optimize it.  Engage and respond to your online community. Promote it.  Want to be a successful blogger and content creator, here’s an excellent resource and tips form the pros: Habits of Successful Bloggers

Wall Street Journal recently published an article No More Resumes, Say Some Firms‘ in which author, Rachel Emma Silverman, reported that many firms are looking at other things other than a resume. This has always been true.  Yes, the traditional resume may get you an interview, if it stands out enough, or HR has enough time to read it.  But when you get there, you better be remarkable.  During my last job search, I’ve been asked about things that weren’t on my resume.  Some people didn’t even look at it.   That was nearly 2 years ago, and everyone that I’ve met with during that job search wanted to know what makes me wake up in the morning, how I’m going to solve problems for them and what makes me remarkable.  I was prepared.  I had created enough projects and produced results that I could firmly stand behind. Both in my previous daytime roles and outside of them. I was also involved in a handful of entrepreneurial stints, including my personal training side business.  And I still moonlight as a personal trainer to this day.

Employers don’t have the time to hold your hand.  It’s different now than it was 10 or 20 years ago.  You need to do more than just email resumes all day.