10 Corporate Blogging Tips and Strategies

Ambal from Click Documents asked me if I had any tips/strategies for corporate blogging.  The presentation below is a corporate blogging basics presentation useful for beginning bloggers.  That said, here are the main takeaways.  For more indepth understanding of a content marketing strategy, this content marketing white paper will help.

1. A blog is just a tool, nothing more, nothing less. BUT, it can be a powerful tool to distribute consistent and valuable information to your prospects and customers.  Be sure to focus on the informational needs of your customers, and provide helpful content around those needs. The more niche the better.  Find your expertise area and own it!
2. Not sure how to get started with a robust social media presence? First, focus on your blog and use that as the magnet to attract customers from social networks to your site.  You cannot have a social media strategy without first understanding your content strategy.
3. Match your expertise areas with the needs of your customers.  Every situation where you have expertise and your customer has an informational need is a piece of content that leads to a larger content strategy.
4. There are thousands of blogging platforms.  Pick the easiest to implement. WordPress and TypePad would be my first and second choices. Larger organizations may want to look into Compendium.
5. Get your blogging ears on and listen.  Use tools such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search and Tweetdeck to actively listen to your community.
6. Where are your customers hanging out?  Find relevant industry blogs using Twitter, Google Alerts and Google Blog Search and begin to read those blogs. A bit later, start to engage and comment with helpful tips.  Once you gather a presence on those blogs, guest blogging opportunities should be considered.  Make a list of at least 10-15 blogs.
7. Automatically spread your message.  Use a service like Twitterfeed to automatically post your blog updates to Twitter and Facebook.
8. Choose a consistent schedule.  Whether it’s once, twice a week or even daily, pick a schedule and stick to it.  This blog posts 2-3 times per week and has been doing so for almost three years now.  Of all these points, this may be the most important.
9. Track your performance. Use Google Analytics to monitor which posts are being engaged in the most and where people are coming from.  Do more of the posts that are read, less of the ones that are not.
10. Length and style tips:

• Shorter is often better (250 words).  Get to the point and make it actionable.  Link out to ideas that need more explanation.
• Bullets/Lists do better
• Titles are like magazine covers…their role is to get people to open them.  Work on titles that get people to read your post.
• Integrate video or presentations (embed) whenever possible.  Mix it up!
• Actively link to other bloggers.  They will notice.
• Proofread!