2. 2
• Who am I?
• What is a blog?
• Why blog?
• Choosing your blog platform
• Common features of a blog
• Growing your blog readership
• Ethical blogging
3. 3
Who am I?
• Author and technology consultant
• B2B PR professional since 1987
– in-house: Halcrow, Tarmac, BIW
– consultancy clients include:
ACA, AEngD, 4Projects, Conject
– B2B: a Wikipedian (2003),
a blogger (2005) and tweeter (2008)
4. 4
What is a blog?
• short for “web log”
• a personal journal published on the
World Wide Web consisting of
discrete entries ("posts") typically
displayed in reverse chronological
order so the most recent post
appears first From: Wikipedia
5. 5
c. 51BC - a long tradition...
• Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Correspondence copied,
shared, quoted,
comments added...
• Two-way conversations
passed via social networks
6. 6
What is a blog?
• Personal blogs
• Corporate or organisational blogs
• by genre (eg: political, health, travel, etc)
• by media type (eg: vlog, photoblog)
• by device (eg: moblog)
From: Wikipedia
7. How big is the blogosphere?
• Worldwide:
250m blogs on Tumblr and
Wordpress alone
• Blogger “most popular” (but no public stats)
• Guess-timate: 400m??
15. 15
Blog features
• Who are you (solo or team)?
• What will you write about?
–real (not anonymous)
–show credentials
–set expectations
• Link to main website
25. 25
Driving traffic to your blog
• Link blog to website(s) (and vice versa; RSS)
• Share posts
– Twitter
– LinkedIn
– Facebook, Google+, etc
• Publicise blog URL
– on email signature, business card
– on social profiles
– in notes on news releases, etc
26. 26
Driving traffic to your blog
• Blogger outreach
– Cultivate blog-roll links to related blogs,
people sharing similar interests
– guest posts
– comment, ask questions
• Re-post versions to other relevant blogs,
online communities, etc
27. 27
Driving traffic to your blog
• Re-post via website, e-newsletters
• Offline: magazines, posters, events, etc
• Content-sharing, eg:
– share photos from Flickr account
– embed YouTube videos, SlideShare
presentations, etc
• invite people to comment, or to write blog
responses
28. 28
Driving traffic to your blog
• Monitor feedback
– What type of posts or content stimulate
most comments or links (ping-backs)?
• Monitor traffic (eg: via Google Analytics):
– Which posts get most traffic?
– Which dissemination strategies deliver
most traffic?
– Which promotion strategies deliver most
traffic?
30. 30
Good blogging
• Stay on-topic
• Keep it personal,
not corporate
• Post regularly
• Be responsive to
comments
• Think long-term
– what outcomes/reactions do you want?
31. 31
Good blogging
• Beware:
– 'Flogging' (+ 'splogging')
(fake blogging)
– 'Astro-turfing'
• Take care 'ghost-writing'
or re-using others' content
• Have terms of reference,
policies regarding subject
matter, approval processes, etc
• Correct any errors quickly
32. 32
Good blogging
• Beware:
– company and/or client
confidentiality
– copyright issues
– defamation
• Avoid conflicts of interest
– disclosure
• Consider disclaimers
• Above all: honesty and integrity
33. 33
Business of blogging - take-aways
What should organisations blog about?
• Not just you/the organisation itself -
blowing your own trumpet can be a big
turn-off
• Write about what matters to your desired
target readers
• Write about topics where your people can
offer ideas and analysis readers couldn't
get anywhere else (differentiate!)
34. 34
Q&A
Thank you
Contact: Paul Wilkinson
Website: www.pwcom.co.uk
Tech blog: www.extranetevolution.com
PR blog: www.blog.pwcom.co.uk
Email: paul.wilkinson@pwcom.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 8858 1104
mob: 07788 445920
Twitter: @EEPaul
http://www.google.com/profiles/paul.wilkinson19
The business of
blogging