Blogging for Business

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Blogging for businessSam Mutimer


What is a Blog?

- An online journal, your business personality

- A website

- Home base - connects the social networking sites and your website

together.

- A place to create quality content that your target market will enjoy

and hopefully share

- A place to engage and build up trust

- A place to share and connect

- Niches works best


What are the benefits?

- Powerful marketing tool to attract leads and new customers.

- Increase visibility in your marketplace.

- Put a personality to your business/organisation

- Great for the search engines, fresh content-key words/search terms

- Direct Communications.

- Brand Building.

- Gain an insight into your customers

- Relationship Building


Benefits

- Reduce calls and emails

- Competitive differentiation.

- Exploit the niches.

- Position you as an expert.

- Reputation management.

- Low cost.

Delegates blogging and tweeting at the back of the room

during the AWG-LCA informal plenary on Saturday morning.


How to blog

- Tell stories

- Give away your knowledge (yet not all of it) ;;-)

- Lists and “how to’s” are great grabbers

- Debate a popular member of your community, or take the opposing

- point of view on a current topic.

Interview people in your industry/clients


Write great headlines

- Follow through on the promise of your headline

- Tell your audience what’s in it for them

- Link with other blogs to share your view

- Include quality images

- Leave last sentence with an opening question

- Add video when necessary


Blog Design

- Clean, simple, professional, sticks in the readers mind – catchy!

- Easy to navigate

- Informs the viewer the purpose of the blog - tagline

- Don’t install every plugin under the sun!!!

- Make it easy for your readers to subscribe

- Feedburner

Make it Easy to read, use good fonts


Identify Goals - Step 1

- What is the purpose of your blog?

- What will it focus on?

- How many posts will you commit to a week?

- Who do you want to attract?

- Do you want to build a list?

- Do you want advertising space on your blog?

- Will you softly sell your products from this space?

- Will it be used as lead generation?


Build posts based on listening - what is

trending/what is community talking about?Listen - Step 2


What is the #1 reason people buy?

TRUSTBuild this on your blog by comments/linking/conversation/value add


Prepare – Step 3

- Forums/Twitter/Facebook pages

- Notice what is getting attention


Know your audience - key to what you prepare.


Search the trends

- Bullet point a list to search and begin by researching if any top

bloggers are talking about this.

- Great places to search – technorati, del.icio.us, Google Blogsearch,

social mention.


Content

- Always write with your readers in mind

- Listen and then deliver

- Niche your content

- Educate - Entertain - Engage


Remember to use video at times to entertain and

highlight your personality. To give a richer experience.


Build a community - Step 4

bloggers/blogs where target market hang out – see http://www.

socialmediaexaminer.com/

- Be transparent, authentic, REAL!

- Be niched

- Have an opt in on your blog


Contribute – Quality information


Your blog bio

- Firstly consider why you are blogging - what are your goals?

- What will your readers expect to gain from this blog?

- Who are you?

- Be unique and catchy/different

- Be yourself

- How can they get the best from you?


Compose your first blog post

- Refresh yourself and look back at your goals

- What will your target market want to read? How do you know this?

- Research via forums/popular blogs.

- Incorporate video

- Catchy heading

- End with an open question


Calls to action

- Subscribe to the blog

- Connect on your social networks

- Sign up for an event/webinar

- Ask for feedback

- Posting comments

- Download an ebook/content/report

- Polls

- Competition

- Link to website and ask question about this


Ask for them to share this twitter/

facebook etc “sharethis” plugin


Participation

- On your blog

- On other peoples - related to your industry/audience

- Connecting with other bloggers - Makes you more visible and known

- On social networks - where your target market hang out


Gravatar

post your picture will come up

- More recognised

Your BLOG.

- http://en.gravatar.com/


Blogging platforms

- Wordpress - www.wordpress.com

- Blogger - www.blogger.com

- Smaller blogging sites (great for quick posts)

- Larger than a status update, shorter than a blog post – check these

two out!

- Posterous - www.posterous.com

- Tumblr - www.tumblr.com


Wordpress is one of the biggest blogging platform at the moment.


Some outstanding blogs

- Darren Rowse:

- http://www.problogger.net/

- Gary Vaynerchuk : http://garyvaynerchuk.com/

- Mari Smith

- http://www.marismith.com/

- Social Media Examiner

- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/


Connect with us! www.thinktankmedia.com.au/blog


Thanks a million for attending!

- Sam Mutimer- Senior Social Media Strategist

- Thinktank Media

- Twitter: @sammutimer

- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thinktankmedia.au

- Mail: [email protected]

- Tel: Thinktank Media on 1300 660 651

- Google me – Sam Mutimer

Blogging for Business

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