Download - 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/