Business Blogging 101

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Transcript of Business Blogging 101

Why Your Organization Should Blog

• Why Blogging is Important• The Rules Will Continue to Change• How Often Should You Blog?• What Should You Write About?

Keep in mind, social media — which includes blogging — is attraction not promotion; prospects have to want to go to your site. This can be accomplished by offering valuable information, solving problems, and not overselling.

How to Stay Ahead of your Business Blog

What Can You Blog About

We have products and services that every type of business or organization will eventually need.

By offering interesting or valuable information, we connect with businesses, which may not be immediately searching for our product. This gives us the opportunity to make them aware of our services.

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Our blogging and social media philosophy is based on two ideas:

ACTION Identify 3 or 4 blogging topic categories for your blog

Use an Editorial Calendar

Track Blog ProgressIn our editorial calendar we track five levels of progress, topic category, idea, in edit, WordPress, and published. Once we’ve listed the topics the next step is to add an idea.• Ideas • Write the post • Edit • Post to a blogging site. We use WordPress• Publish

Plan and schedule when you will publish individual posts.

Use a Systematic Approach

The key to staying ahead of your blog is having a system, using it, and not letting it get away. The first time the calendar isn’t followed and a new post isn’t published as scheduled is the beginning of the end. The exception becomes the rule.

ACTION List your next four topic categories

How to NeverRun Out ofBlog Ideas

• Create a Blog Idea Log• Keep Your Comments• Understand Your Creative Cycles• Stay Ahead of the Game• Everything You Write Could Be a Blog Post

More Strategies to Stay Ahead

• Guest posts

• Soliticit other in-house writers

• Add Easy Blog Subject Categories, For Example:

Meet the Team • FAQ • Photo Blog • Featured Customer • Case StudiesTech Talk • Quiz • Top Ten Lists • How To • How Much • How It Works

ACTION Create four blog post ideas

How to ImproveYour Blog in

24 Hours

A 24-Hour Blog Improvement Plan

Turn off spell check — Hemingway said, “Write drunk; Edit sober” Writing and editing use different parts of the brain. Turn spell check off as you write, and let the creativity flow. Turn it ON to edit.

Read it out loud — Let it roll off your tongue — see how it feels and sounds. You’ll find revisions, which will improve the readability.

Think small — Given a choice, choose the simplest words – the meaning is almost always clearer. Usually, people quickly scan posts, and long words break up the flow.

A 24-Hour Blog Improvement PlanReview it backwards — Begin at the end and review each sentence as a stand-alone structure.

Wait 24 hours — Let it sit. Set the post aside, and forget about it. You’ll come back with a new perspective.

Use an editor — It doesn’t have to be a professional paid editor (although if it’s in the budget, go for it). Find someone who complements your weaknesses to be your editor(s). At one time we used a three-person process, another time a two, and use editing software.

ACTION Outline an editing plan

You’ve been working on your website for three months. You hired a top notch web design team, and they delivered. You love your new site. It’s simple, elegant, and effective. From the typography to the copy—it works. It’s easy to navigate and has concrete calls to action. It’s a great site, and you’re glad your work is done…But, it’s not Done

How to Feed your Website the Content it Craves

Publishing new web content isn’t limited to a blog. To begin with, you can post on more than one blog. We have three separate blogs for our three divisions. Here are some other content publishing formats.

eBooks – An eBook can be an expanded version of a “how it works” blog post. It can be a tutorial or a guide.

Case studies – Sharing problems your customers have faced, your solution, and the outcome is one of the best ways to connect with new prospects.

Checklists – Problem-solving checklists that organize activities and information are valuable tools for most consumers and any business.

Beyond the Blog

Video – Can be used for customer testimonials, product tutorials, and more. This simple video has more than 20,000 views.

Images – Not only should images be part of every blog post, but they should stand on their own with portfolios, featured customers, and new work.

So, What’s for Dinner?

Beyond the Blog

ACTION Choose one content format to implement