Blogging for Business - Sweet for all sizes

Blogging for Business: Better than cupcakes? Katie Laird klaird@schipul.com www.schipul.com // www.happykatie.com Katie Laird klaird@schipul.com www.schipul.com // www.happykatie.com http://ﬂickr.com/photos/kjellander/305301902/

What we’ll talk about... • Business Blogs in action • What the heck is micro-Blogging? • The power of Visualization • Blog fodder, tips and tricks Blogging for Business, Blogging for the People

Are Bloggers the Internet’s party people?

Sure, it’s a feel-good, online conversation...

... but is Business Blogging actually proﬁtable?

NOT Blogging F500 Blogging F500 (61 total) 12% 88% http://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi These guys say yes (everything in moderation)

Humanizing the brand! http://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi?traits_of_the_fortune_500_blogs

Let’s look at some Real Live Business Blogs

Company Blogs

Boeing B2B Flight Test Journal www.boeing.com/commercial/777family

37 Signals Blog(s) http://productblog.37signals.com/ www.37signals.com/svn/

Thought Leader Blog

Audrey Kawasaki blog (freelance artist blog) http://baibai-matane.livejournal.com

Event marketing company shares the love www.eventmarketing.zvents.com

‘By the people’ Company Blogs (surprise!!!)

The Apple Blog (totally not ofﬁcial) www.theappleblog.com

My Starbucks Idea - Post based on Visitor Content http://blogs.starbucks.com/blogs/customer

5 great ways YOU (yes, you) can use a Blog for your business

1. Establish an online presence on the cheap Caroline Collective www.carolinecollective.cc

2. Look brilliant, be adored by many Crowdspring - crowd source graphic design Blog http://blog.crowdspring.com

3. Support, give back and build your Community Houston Artist Relief Blog -- HAA artist outreach www.haahelps.com

4. Promote and extend conferences and event life Mom 2.0 Summit www.mom2summit.com

5. Run a viral marketing multimedia campaign www.arttheheartofhouston.com www.haablog.com

All a-Twitter www.twitter.com

In 140 characters or less... What are you doing right now? www.twitter.com

The (new) Art of Community Building A chance to connect and be generous • Share your brain candy and link love • Promote community and friends’ events and news • (secondarily) Promote your events, content and news • Give live outline of events or presentations • Tell Katie where the speed traps are :) • Say thank you!

Want to know who is talking about you on Twitter? Follow the Micro-Blogging buzz www.tweetscan.com www.summize.com www.twitscoop.com

Do more with less... Feed your Tweets into other sites

Let’s take a quick breather!

The Road to Blogging: Filling your brain to the max

They are already talking about you... but what are they saying?

Track the conversation and ﬁnd out! www,technorati.com/watchlist Powerful Social Media search engine watches for your terms and updates you www.google.com/alerts Email updates for your company name and keywords http://alerts.yahoo.com Yahoo! alerts you of any occurrences of deﬁned terms and names

Tracking the online conversation... Further online Reputation Management Google Trends search: www.google.com/trends Technorati search: www.technorati.com

Tracking the online conversation... How do you compare to your competition? www.blogpulse.com Great visuals to track you and your competition’s online activity and Buzz

Find something less-than-great about your business online?

Deal with it! NOW!

Tracking the online conversation... Timeliness and sincerity mean everything • Draft response strategy beforehand • If you need to say you’re sorry: mean it and back it up with visible action! • A crisis is NOT the time to start a Blog • Respond personally and publicly

Discover the Inﬂuencers (and folks you just plain like)

Find awesome Blogs to read and learn from www.technorati.com // www.blogsearch.google.com

IceRocket - Proliﬁc vs. Inﬂuential = 2 different things www.icerocket.com

Love thy feed reader! www.google.com/reader

Pageﬂakes - personalized online data center www.pageﬂakes.com

http://flickr.com/photos/geekette/212455285/ Let’s get personal.

Create your Personal Brand • Keep it consistent EVERYWHERE • Create an Avatar • Add important links / personal brands to your email footers • Promote your employee Personal Brands (www.schipul.com/ happykatie) Happykatie!

Let’s Get Blogging! • Set up a fast template Blog • Start simple - match branding graphics later • 5 posts before ‘launch’ www.typepad.com www.blogger.com www.wordpress.com

Let’s get Blogging! Wordpress Template Sites http://topwpthemes.com/ http://www.nattywp.com/ http://www.wpthemespot.com/

Let’s get Blogging! Tumblr - Art of the Uber-Simple http://dallasmarketing.tumblr.com/

Let’s get Blogging! Make your life easier: desktop Blog utilities http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

Let’s get Blogging! Badges of honor - make your brand portable • Let your visitors take your brand http://www.librarything.com/extras.php with them http://www.ﬂickr.com/badge.gne • Easily embedded / shared graphics that show interests or afﬁliation • Cooler than a boring logo and much more interactive

Keep up the Blogging magic • Write regularly (2x week optimal) • Comment regularly • LINK LOVE!!!! At least 1 link a post • Reach out to other Social Networks to grow community • Use images as much as humanly possible http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/kt/120468504/

Keep up the Blogging magic... Random Blog post ideas • Invite guest Blogger to write on industry or event topics • Interview clients, organization speakers, management team (podcast) • Post photos from recent company event or outing • Tips & Tricks for your business or industry • Quote of the Day (with links) • Community or industry organization events and info • ‘Favorite Helpful Links’ series http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/gla/438729143/

Keep up the Blogging magic... Blog post cheats (b/c life gets busy!!) • Round up of news snippets and links to other Blogs • Social bookmarking links - automatically updated! • Liveblog a conference (you’re taking notes anyway...) www.ma.gnolia.com • Ask your Community to create content for YOU - contests, giveaways

Qualified traffic is good – link regularly, link well http://flickr.com/photos/poagao/367128550/

VISUALIZATION!! Tell a story with Blog visuals.

Visualization tools Embed rich media for higher readership • Use other free online social networks to host or discover Rich Media: • Video: • www.youtube.com • www.vimeo.com • Photos: • www.ﬂickr.com • Audio: • www.seeqpod.com

Visualization tools Create your own Rich content • Jing (www.jingproject.com/) - free desktop image and video recorder • Picasa (www.picasa.google.com) - edit images and video with easy uploads • ComicLife (http://plasq.com/comiclife/) - have fun with your images and graphics

Visualization tools Buy a Flip video camera (seriously) http://www.theﬂip.com/

Follow up with your Community • Respond to comments and emails fast and openly • Get to know your visitors and their sites (participate) • Be generous with your links and props - it comes back to you • Set up a Blog Roll • Keep up with those Google Alerts

Strategy, strategy, strategy

What is Success? • Deﬁne your goals ahead of time: www.intensedebate.com • Hits to your Web site / special landing page • Number of comments or link outs • Links from Inﬂuencers • Answers to online polls www.polldaddy.com

How do you know it’s working? • Deﬁne your goals ahead of time: • Newsletter sign up www.mailchimp.com • Raised funds (www.chipin.com) • Number of ‘favorites’ or ratings • Trackbacks from other Blogs

Blogging power at work, donate to: www.brennanshouston.com

Stick with your strategy and tweak as needed • High trafﬁc time? • Post topics particularly hot? • Who are your top referrers? • How are they consuming your info? http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/8136496@N05/2327243497/

Tracking your success.... Statistics are available, numbers work... Google Analytics (free and track your PPC) www.google.com/analytics

Tracking your success.... Stats just a click away... Built-in Blog utility trafﬁc meters www.typepad.com // www.wordpress.com

Tracking your success.... Learn about your RSS subscribers Feedburner (free) www.feedburner.com

But it’s really all about the people

Tracking your success.... The Human Bottom Line • Who are you connecting? • What relationships are you building? • Are you crossing online and ofﬂine marketing to reach the masses? • Are you having fun and getting smarter? www.ﬂickr.com/photos/eschipul/2561315154/ www.carolinecollective.cc

Quickie Social Media To-Do’s 1. Read blogs (ﬁnd them on www.technorati.com) 2. Set up an RSS Feed Reader (www.google.com/reader) 3. Join Facebook (www.facebook.com) 4. Join Flickr (www.ﬂickr.com) 5. Track the buzz about you (www.google.com/alerts)

Social Media is a constant learning process

But a fun one!!! So enjoy :)

Thanks for participating today! Katie Laird Schipul – The Web Marketing Company www.schipul.com / www.tendenci.com (281) 497.6567, ext. 519 Email: klaird@schipul.com Personal brand: www.schipul.com/happykatie Blog: www.happykatie.com Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/happykatie Twitter: www.twitter.com/happykatie Find my slides at: www.slideshare.net/happykatie