how to blog

Blogging: The Basics

A Webinar Developed by Zoetica

©2010

What’s a blog?

• A two-way conversation• An authentic voice

Characteristics:• Journal-esque entries• Reverse chronological order• Features: blog roll, about, recent posts,

archives

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

Guiding Questions• Are you ready? • What’s the purpose (larger goals)?• Who will own it?• What topics will you cover?• What’s your comment policy? • How do you want to engage: Participation, value,

influence and/or empowerment? • How much time will you allocate?• How will you market your blog?

Stakeholder Experience Revolves Around Two Things

Cause As It Relates to Them Complete Integrated Experience

Structuring Your Content

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 1st 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 1) stellar or 2) broken into multiple 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

In The Past…

Call to Action!

Integration Creates Opportunity

Outbound• Email• Webinars• White papers• Events• Ads• Loyalist activities=Identity, opportunities,

loyalty

Inbound• More information• Participation invites• Feedback loops• Harness group intel,

activity (PM)• User gen. content• Fluid enterprise=Socialprise

Promotion• Socnet participation• Bookmarking/sharing• Comment on and link to

other blogs• Blog roll• Register the blog with

Technorati, Google Blogs, and other blog search engines – Tags help!

• Include the blog’s url in your email signature, business card, 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

Comments

• Acknowledge and listen• Always good to engage commenters, but you

don’t have to answer every one. • Thank yous works• Negative comments are good!• Not all negative comments warrant a return,

especially repeats

Handling Trolls

• Identify through search, previous Incidents

• Attention seekers• Don’t feed the trolls!• If it’s serious, state your

facts on your blog referencing the situation

• Nikon D80 example

Community

• Your blog is not an island• Meet your community beyond your own blog:– Socnet groups– Niche socnets (e.g., Ning)– Twitter

• Who else is writing about your topic?• Say hello, link to them, start a conversation

Metrics that Matter

• Call-to-action results• Inbound links (Technorati Authority; Google)• Post: Comment ratio• RSS Subscribers• Traffic:– Visitors/page views– Referring sites– Referring keywords

Images Used• Neutron star 2004 by NASA http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/291708133/• Tree of Life, by quema http://www.flickr.com/photos/quemas/1394199592/• Michelle, by digiart2001 http://www.flickr.com/photos/digiart2001/2143155562/• Black glass by exothermic http://www.flickr.com/photos/exothermic/2277966148/• New York Public Library by grahamwell

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamwell/199603745/• AOL by cpchannel, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpchannel/144214539/• Call to Action by Brick Marketing Consulting,

http://www.brickmarketingconsulting.com/020401_1409_0045_osls_op_640x495.jpg

• Megaphone Man by Aazonearth http://flickr.com/photos/aazis/393250260/ • 19th February 2005 by http://flickr.com/photos/paulwatson/5070829/