From Blog to Brand

Ross BurnsContent Manager

O wad some Power the giftie gie us

To see oursels as ithers see us!

“

”

“O would some Power the gift to give us

To see ourselves as others see us!

It would from many a blunder free us,

And foolish notion.”

Why is this so important and what does it have to do

with travel blogging?

Every minute:

• 347 New WordPress blog posts are published

• 3,125 Flickr images are uploaded

• 48 hours’ worth of YouTube footage is uploaded

By the end of our hour together:

20,000+ new WordPress blog posts will have been published.

And that is just WordPress.

The good news is

You already have your brand

You already have your niche

You just need to emphasise it at every opportunity so that you stand out.

Authoritative

Informative

Fresh

Engaging (and engaged)

A successful blog is

Google+ is becoming important and is your friend

Authoritative

• Use rel=“author” tags

• Fill out your profile in full

• Use a profile image consistent with your other social channels that will show up on SERPs

Facebook Graph Search is coming soon

Authoritative

Authoritative

• Complete your Facebook profile with as much information as possible

The more you have in there, the more people will come across you

Make your brand voice consistent

Authoritative

• Tone of voice

• Spelling

• Pay particular attention if accepting guest posts

Authoritative

Informative

Fresh

Engaging (and engaged)

A successful blog is

Solve people’s problems

Informative

• Know what people are searching your site for

• Use your blog to help answer these common queries and as inspiration for posts

pubs rotterdam

Curate your knowledge to provide guidance

Informative

• If you’ve already done something, compile the resources

• “How to” posts are incredibly popular

• Become an authority not just an inspiration

If you help people, they will come back, boosting your figures

Informative

Useful posts will be

• Bookmarked

• Re-visited

• Shared

Authoritative

Informative

Fresh

Engaging (and engaged)

A successful blog is

Fresh

Use an editorial calendar

Fresh

Stick to deadlines

• Deadlines keep you disciplined

• Offline publishing governed by deadlines – online publishing should be no different

Fresh

Automate on social channels

• Buffer

• Hootsuite

Fresh

Recycle/reuse/repackage

• You already have a wealth of information and resources (photos, etc)

• Don’t be afraid to reuse this in a different format as an easy way of keeping your blog fresh

Fresh

Adopt the 80/20 rule

Doing what you always do

Trying something new

Fresh

• Before and After image sliders require little code and lend themselves to travel photography

Fresh

• Interactive timelines offer a more interesting way of showing details of a trip or a location – can also be used to repackage existing content

Fresh

• Polls can be an interesting way of engaging your readers and the results offer material you can build on and publicise

Fresh

• Building a Google map is quick, straightforward and a good resource

Fresh

• Video is easier than ever to shoot and upload

• YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet

Authoritative

Informative

Fresh

Engaging (and engaged)

A successful blog is

Engaging (and engaged)

Be socially active (offline & online)

Engaging (and engaged)

Know what’s going on in your sphere

Engaging (and engaged)

Know what people are looking for

• Google AdWords is quite addictive and strangely fun to play with

Authoritative

Informative

Fresh

Engaging

A successful blog is

How many hours of YouTube video is

uploaded every minute?

Have you been listening?

Yes, 48. Have a stag!

Introduction

• To A Louse (read by Robert Caryle)

• That scary infographic

Authoritative

• How to use Google+ author tags• Facebook Graph Search

Engaged (and engaging)

• Trendsmap• Google AdWords

Fresh

• Buffer• Hootsuite• Simple image slider• Interactive timelines• Polling plugin• Google Maps• Vine (iOS app)• Tout (iOS & Android app)• YouTube (you probably know wh

ere this one is!)

Essential

• The Caliber Blog

Those resources

Let me know how you get on: ross.burns@caliberi.com / @caliberi