Blogging Basics
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Transcript of Blogging Basics
February 4th, 2009 http://www.crayonville.com
getting started with corporate blogging
11.19.09 | gregverdino.com | @gregverdino | www.crayonville.com
Chief Strategy Officer @ crayon
www.gregverdino.com
www.verdinobytes.com
www.gregverdino.net
www.crayonville.com
microMARKETING (2010)
defining your blog dna
Voice
Texture
Immediacy
ConversationConnectivity
Accessibility
Visibility
http://bit.ly/blogdna
the 7 strands of blog dna
• Determine who (writes what…)
• Corporate voice vs blog voice? Consistent but not the same? More personal? More contemporary? More tech savvy? More human?
• Allow unique authors to have distinctive identities, rather than just promote a “brand voice.”
• Blog about topics of interest to your consumer, not just topics of interest to you.
• Tell the truth…
It’s what you say and how you say it -- a unique, distinctive
narrative style that readers will identify with and return for.
voice
• Accompany post with visuals to break up the text, draw the eye, illustrate the story.
• Make full use of embeddable media to illustrate stories wherever possible -YouTube clips, audio files, flash objects.
• Consider occasional stories in multimedia formats - a video diary, a podcast, a story in illustrated or cartoon format.
Texture
Make full use of the palette from which you can paint.
Using just written text will cause fatigue.
texture
• Make sure you post frequently, and try to post before “morning coffee.”
• Reference current events and the weather/season/things that are happening around you. Make sure your posts feel immediate and contemporary.
• Get your writers into the habit of hitting post as soon as they have finished writing, this will help preserve the “fresh, daily” feel of their writing. Ensure quick editorial turnaround.
Fresh and frequent (but not too frequent), an urgent ‘need to read’ and a contemporary tone.
immediacy
• Create posts that open up a
debate, invite commentary or
provoke participation.
• Enable comments, and if
moderated, ensure you approve
within 24 hours.
• Continue the dialog with your
readers by answering their
comments with comments of
your own.
Conversation
Open a dialog with your readers, and provide the
means for them to join the conversation.
conversation
• “Share This” and Tweetmeme are
your connectivity baseline.
• Don‟t assume “If I write, they will
come” - get in the habit of pitching
stories to relevant bloggers for
them to feature.
• Create a blogroll on your site that
links to your own favorite blogs, in
the hope that they will
reciprocate.
Make other bloggers a key target for readership, and
empower them to cross promote.
Conversationconnectivity
connectivity goes beyond your blog
• A blog isn’t a soapbox, it’s a conversation – and a widely
distributed conversation at that…
• Monitor other blogs, comment
when you have value to add.
• Thank bloggers that reference
your content.
• Give “link love” to other
bloggers, point to related
materials and give credit where
credit is due.
• Notify known „friendlies‟ when
you publish content that may be
of interest to them.
• Allow readers to subscribe to specific categories,topics and authors in addition to the complete feed - via RSS, email, bloglines.
• Enable full RSS feeds - don‟t MAKE readers comes to your site if they don‟t want to.
• Device neutrality is becoming key: iPhone, Kindle, etc.
• Create widgets and modules that allow readers to embed your content on their blogs and social media profiles.
• Consider syndication to industry-specific content aggregators.
Allow your readers to access your content when, where
and how they want it - make IT fit into THEIR lives
Conversationaccessibility
• Make sure the blog is
optimized for search engines
by creating relevant, keyword-
friendly post titles.
• Adding “tags” to every post
will allow multiple blog search
engines to more easily
categorize your posts.
• Set the system to “ping” all
major search engines every
time a post is published.
Ensuring the blog can easily be found no matter
where people are looking
Conversationvisibility
measuring success
Key Success Metrics
Participation
Traffic
Comments
Distribution
Subscriptions
Time Spent
Conversation
Press
Comments
Tags & Bookmarks
Search Optimization
Social Media
Participation (outside in) + Conversation (inside out)
http://bit.ly/blogframe
the one year rule
February 4th, 2009 http://www.crayonville.com11.19.09 | gregverdino.com | @gregverdino | www.crayonville.com
greg verdino 631.747.1451
chief strategy officer [email protected]
Let’s Continue This Conversation